April 26, 2015

Top News Stories –

Nepal earthquake: International aid effort increased –
The international aid effort for Nepal is gathering pace, with Saturday’s massive earthquake now known to have killed 3,726 people and injured 6,500. China, India, Pakistan and Britain are among the countries contributing to the effort, alongside major aid agencies. Nepal has asked for more help, saying it needs everything from helicopters and blankets to paramedics and drivers. At least 200 climbers have now been rescued around Mount Everest, after the quake triggered avalanches. Foreign climbers on Everest and their Nepalese guides were caught by the tremors and a huge avalanche that buried part of the camp (See Video of the Day). At least 18 were killed by avalanches. China has meanwhile announced a halt to all spring expeditions to Mount Everest from the north face of the mountain on its side of the border, state media reports.

Rich List 2015: Super rich’s wealth soars as new money floods in from abroad –
he combined wealth of the 1,000 richest men and women in Britain has more than doubled in the last ten years, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. (See List of the Day) The wealthiest 1,000 individuals and families now have a combined fortune of £547.126 billion, up from £249.615 billion in 2005, despite the world economy being gripped by a punishing recession over much of the last decade. Plain old millionaires increasingly struggle to count themselves among the mega-rich, with a fortune of £100 million now required to make it into the top 1,000. That is £15 million higher than last year’s minimum, while in 1997 it took a personal wealth of ‘just’ £15 million to make the grade. The list includes 117 billionaires, up from 104 last year. They account for a total wealth of £325.131 billion and 80 of them are based in London. It means the capital has more sterling billionaires than any other city in the world. [Daily Telegraph]
Roman Abramovich – Owner of Chelsea FC and 10th richest man in Britain

Paula Radcliffe runs the London Marathon for the last time –
Briton Radcliffe, 41, ran the 26.2-mile course in two hours 36 minutes 55 seconds, less than three years after surgery on a serious foot injury.
“It was just amazing the whole way round,” the world-record holder said. “I wore the sunglasses to keep a lid on my emotions and they definitely hid some tears along the way,” she added. Radcliffe won the London Marathon in 2002, 2003 and 2005, and her 2003 winning time of 2:15:25 remains the world record.
Paula Radcliffe

Video of the Day –

Hit by Avalanche in Everest Basecamp 25.04.2015 –

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May 8, 2015

Top News Stories –

British General Election results in a surprise Conservative majority and the resignation of three opposition leaders –
Summary of the major stories [BBC]:

David Cameron remains in No 10 as Prime Minister after the Conservatives win an outright majority of 12
He is in the process of appointing his new, all-Tory cabinet, with George Osborne already named chancellor
Labour leader Ed Miliband stood down after his party returned 232 MPs, down 26
Heavy losses left the Liberal Democrats with only eight MPs – down from 57 in 2010 – and saw Nick Clegg resign as leader
There was a landslide victory for the SNP in Scotland, where it won 56 out of 59 seats
UKIP’s Nigel Farage resigned after failing to win Thanet South – the party has just one MP
The Greens held their one seat of Brighton Pavillion

[BBC]

Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions –
Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development executive, said in a conference speech this week that Windows 10 would be the “last version” of the dominant desktop software. His comments were echoed by Microsoft which said it would update Windows in future in an “ongoing manner”. Instead of new stand-alone versions, Windows 10 would be improved in regular instalments, the firm said. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Rain’s Dirty Little Secret

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May 10, 2015

Top News Stories –

Ant and Dec repeat Bafta success –
Ant and Dec have picked up two prizes at the Bafta Television Awards for the second year in a row. The duo won best entertainment show and best entertainment performance for their ITV show Saturday Night Takeaway. ITV’s Coronation Street also won best soap in the year it celebrated its 60th anniversary. [BBC] For full winners list see List of the Day below.

Scotland tops gay equality league –
Scotland has been rated the best country in Europe in terms of legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Scotland came top of the Rainbow Index after meeting 92% of ILGA-Europe’s criteria for equality and human rights, ahead of the UK as a whole. Equality campaigners said the ranking recognised the country’s progressive measures. But they said more needed to be done to achieve full equality. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

We Are The Faction Collective: #S02E03 from Faction Skis on Vimeo.

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May 13, 2015

Top News Stories –

Prince Harry does the Haka in New Zealand –
Prince Harry has taken part in a traditional Maori Haka during his tour of New Zealand. It was part of a day of activities at Linton Military Camp, the largest army base in the country. [BBC] In December 2013 Prince Harry led his Sandringham workers team to a 7-2 victory in a football (soccer) match against local villagers in Scotland.
Prince Harry

China imposes smartwatch and wearable tech army ban –
China has forbidden its armed forces from wearing internet-connected wearable tech, according to reports. The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the Chinese military’s official newspaper, said security concerns had been raised after one recruit had received a smartwatch as a birthday gift. News site NBC said its sources had confirmed a ban was now in place. [BBC]

Prince Charles’s private letters published –
Private letters sent by the Prince of Wales to Labour ministers a decade ago have been published after a lengthy legal battle. Clarence House said the move would “only inhibit” the prince’s ability to express concerns. In one letter to the prime minister, the prince said the armed forces were being asked to do a challenging job “without the necessary resources”. Release of the letters follows a decade-long campaign by the Guardian. [BBC] See Top Twitter Trends
Prince Charles

Video of the Day –

Why Do We Wrinkle When Wet?

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#WeWantNoControlAsASingle	Instant Articles	Prince Charles
2	Kim Jong-Un	#WeWantNoControlAsASingle	#BritishValues
3	#SomayıUnutma	#HumpDay	#WeWantNoControlAsASingle
4	#AVecesMeDanGanas	Harriet Tubman	#HumpDay
5	예비군	#ScientificTVShows	Instant Articles
6	#MePuedeMuchoQue	#Amtrak	#UnlikelyLinesFromACooking…
7	Ali Kemal	#Amtrak188	#AskMmusi
8	#ScientificTVShows	#SingleBecause	Suarez
9	#SiNoTeHubieraConocido	Karachi	#BBUK
10	Harriet Tubman	#JacobOnBUZZ	#GeordieShore

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Gunmen open fire on a bus containing members of the Ismaili Shia Muslim community in the Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 44 people and injuring a dozen. (Pakistan Tribune), (BBC)
The Government of Iraq claims that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant second-in-command Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed has been killed in an airstrike in northern Iraq. (BBC)
War in Afghanistan: Gunmen attack a Kabul guesthouse used by both foreigners and locals sparking a gun battle with police. At least eight people including the three gunmen are killed with 16 rescued and 100 still inside. (Thomson Reuters Foundatiion), (NBC News)
Yemen crisis: A five day truce begins in Yemen as aid groups seek to gain access. (BBC)
A military reservist opens fire at a South Korean military base killing 2 and injuring 3. (Yonhap)

Business and economy

Japanese carmakers Toyota and Nissan recall 6.5 million vehicles due to fears over exploding airbags. (AFP via Yahoo! )
The United States Department of Agriculture reports that more than 40% of honey bee colonies died in the preceding year. Growers rely on honey bees to pollinate more than $15 billion of crops annually. (Wall Street Journal)
International conglomerate Danaher announces plans to acquire water filtration company Pall for US$13.8 billion and to split off its industrial businesses into a new company. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

Rescue efforts resume in Nepal after yesterday’s earthquake which killed at least 63 in Nepal and 17 in northern India. (BBC), (CNN)
2015 Philadelphia train derailment
- The death toll from the derailment rises to seven with over 200 people injured. (WCAU), (US News and World Report)
- Search teams recover the black box. (AFP via News24)
- Report that train believed to have been traveling in excess of 100 mph, about twice the speed limit for the curve.(CNN)
Thirty-one people die and dozens of people are missing and feared dead after a fire engulfs a rubber sandal factory in Manila, capital of the Philippines. (Al-Jazeera) (Reuters via News24)
Rescue workers attempt to rescue at least 15 gold miners trapped by floods in a mine in Colombia‘s Caldas Department. (BBC)

International relations

The Vatican concludes a treaty to recognize the Palestinian state. (New York Times)

Law and crime

2015 Burundian protests
- Major General Godefroid Niyombare has declared a coup in Burundi and the establishment of a “national salvation committee”. PresidentPierre Nkurunziza is attempting to return home from Tanzania. (BBC)
- Police in Burundi fire on protesters in Bujumbura opposing the bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza for a third term. (BBC)
- Bujumbura International Airport and all land borders are ordered closed by Major General Godefroid Niyombare. (AFP via News24)
The small nation of Nauru temporarily bans Facebook, purportedly to protect young people. (ABC Australia)
Shooting of Tony Robinson: Demonstrators peacefully protest Wisconsin prosecutor’s decision, announced yesterday, not to pursue charges against the officer who shot and killed 19-year-old. (Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel)

Politics and elections

South Korea claims that North Korea has executed its defense chief Hyon Yong-chol with an Anti-aircraft gun. (Yonhap) (CNN)
The United States House of Representatives votes overwhelmingly to end the mass collection of Americans phone data with the USA Freedom Act passing 338-88. Its passage through the Senate is less certain. (The Guardian)

Sports

Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
- In athletics, the U.S. men’s 4×100 metres relay that won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London is stripped of the medal due to a positive test result by Tyson Gay. (Reuters via Yahoo 7)

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May 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

Record fines for currency market fix –
Five of the world’s largest banks are to pay fines totalling $5.7bn (£3.6bn) for charges including manipulating the foreign exchange market.
Four of the banks – JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and RBS – have agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges. The fifth, UBS, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates. Barclays was fined the most, $2.4bn, as it did not join other banks in November to settle investigations by UK, US and Swiss regulators. Barclays is also sacking eight employees involved in the scheme. [BBC]

Chinese professor accused in ‘Breaking Bad’ drugs plot –
Police in China have arrested a chemistry professor for his part in producing a psychoactive drug in a case that has been likened to US crime drama Breaking Bad. State agency Xinhua said 17 people were arrested including a Xian university professor alleged to have helped provide the recipe for methcathinone. Police seized 128kg (282lb) of the drug and more than 5m yuan ($806,095; £519,450). The drug lab was raided last year. [BBC]

David Letterman saluted by stars on final Late Show –
Four US presidents have joined stars including Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld and Foo Fighters to pay tribute to TV host David Letterman on his final late night talk show. Letterman has bowed out after 33 years and 6,028 late-night broadcasts.He joked that physicist Stephen Hawking had calculated it “works out to about eight minutes of laughter”.He gave emotional thanks to his family, crew and viewers, saying: “There’s nothing I can ever do to repay you.”The 68-year-old began his late-night career on NBC in 1982, before moving to CBS’s Late Show in 1993.[BBC] See Video of the Day and List of the Day.
David Letterman

Video of the Day –

Celebrity Top Ten Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say To David Letterman

List of the day –

David Letterman’s final Top Ten list – “Top 10 things I’ve always wanted to say to Dave:”

10. Alec Baldwin: “Of all the talk shows, yours is the most geographically convenient to my home.”

9. Barbara Walters: “Did you know you wear the same cologne as Muammar Qaddafi?”

8. Steve Martin: Your extensive plastic surgery was a necessity…and a mistake.”

7. Jerry Seinfeld: “I have no idea what I’ll do when you go off the air. You know what, I just thought of something: I’ll be fine.”

6. Jim Carrey: “Honestly Dave, I’ve always found you to be a bit of an over-actor.” (He gesticulated wildly).

5. Chris Rock: “I’m just glad your show is being given to another white guy.” (Dave: “You know, I had nothing to do with that.”)

4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale.” (Seinfeld smirks). (Dave: “I had nothing to do with that either.”)

3. Peyton Manning: “Dave, you are to comedy what I am to comedy.”

2. Tina Fey: “Thanks for finally proving men can be funny.”

1. Bill Murray: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DescribeYourselfIn3Words	#DescribeYourselfIn3Words	#DescribeYourselfIn3Words
2	#undiasinmusica	#HumpDay	#TDC15
3	#MTVBattle1D	Riley Curry	#SoftenAFilm
4	#MasterChefBR	#SoftenAFilm	#supportbaharmustafa
5	#MiVidaSeBasaEn	#MTVBattle1D	Bermuda
6	#EnQueIdiomaTeDigoQue	#StandWithRand	#HumpDay
7	PARABÉNS RANGEL	#Blackhawks	#5ONTHEWALL
8	#MiConsejoDeVida	#NXTTakeOver	#GeordieShore
9	Yiğit Bulut	#bucciovertimechallenge	Uwe Rosler
10	#JustinForMMVA	#NoWayThatsAHoliday	#TheFlashSeasonFinale

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- Islamic State captures the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra from the Syrian Army with grave concerns held about its world heritage site. (The Hindu) (BBC)
The People’s Liberation Army Navy issues warnings eight times as a United States surveillance plane flies over manmade islands in the South China Sea. (CNN)

Arts and culture

Tools found near Lake Turkana in Kenya by Sonia Harmand and Jason Lewis of Stony Brook University are dated at 3.3 million years making them the oldest yet discovered. (AP via ABC News America)
The last edition of the Late Show with David Letterman goes to air on CBS Television in the United States. Following his retirement, David Letterman will be succeeded by Stephen Colbert on September 8, 2015. (CNN Money)

Disasters and accidents

A Shosholoza Meyl passenger train collides head-on with a goods train in Eastern Cape, South Africa, killing two people and injuring 20. (News24)
A rupture of an underground oil pipeline in California‘s Santa Barbara County near Refugio State Beach may have released 105,000 gallons ofcrude oil with tens of thousands gallons released into the Pacific Ocean. Jerry Brown, the Governor of California later declares a state of emergency. (Los Angeles Times), (ABC7 Los Angeles)
2015 Colombian landslide
- The death toll from Monday’s landslide in the town of Salgar rises to 80. (CNN)

International relations

South East Asian migrant crisis
- The foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand meet in Kuala Lumpur to discuss people smuggling and the migrant crisis. Malaysia and Indonesia agree to accept asylum seekers providing that they can be resettled or repatriated within a year. (Straits Times), (wires and ABC Online)
- Over 430 migrants are rescued off the coast of Indonesia‘s eastern Aceh province. (AP via New York Times)
North Korea
- North Korea abruptly cancels an invitation for Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, to visit. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
- The Korean Central News Agency claims that North Korea has the ability to miniaturize nuclear weapons and place them on ballistic missiles.(CNN)

Law and crime

Zambia lifts a ban on hunting big cats imposed over corruption in hunting concessions in the past. (AFP via Yahoo News)
Five big banks Barclays, RBS, Citi, JP Morgan and UBS are fined $5.7 billion after a United States Department of Justice investigation into collusion by forex traders in several countries. (The Guardian)
An arrest warrant is issued for Daron Dylon Wint in the US capital Washington, D.C. in connection to the alleged murder of four people on May 14.(WJLA)
The legislature in the American state of Nebraska votes to abolish the death penalty. (Washington Post)

Sports

British driver Lewis Hamilton signs a three year contract with the German constructors Mercedes AMG. (CNN)

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June 4, 2015

Top News Stories –

Millions of US government workers hit by data breach –
Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a “massive breach” affecting the data of millions of US government workers, officials said. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed on Thursday that almost four million current and past employees have been affected. The breach could potentially affect every federal agency, officials said. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was thought to have originated in China. The Chinese embassy in Washington warned against “jumping to conclusions”. [BBC]

Sam Smith can speak again after vocal cord operation and reschedules gigs –
Sam Smith says he can now speak again and is ready to go back on tour after his vocal cord operation. The singer posted on Instagram: “I CAN SPEAK AGAIN!!!!!!!!” with a picture of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. He also shared a photo of the doctor who helped him to reclaim his voice and publicly thanked him. Four performances that he had to postpone in April after having problems with his voice have now been announced in Australia. [BBC]
Sam Smith with Doctor Zeitels © Samsmithworld/Instagram

Tricky GCSE maths exam sees pupils take to Twitter –

A tricky GCSE maths question stumped thousands of students – but inspired them to take to Twitter to vent their anger and frustration. The equation in Thursday’s Edexcel exam was on the probability of taking two orange sweets from a bag. By the afternoon the topic was trending on Twitter and online petitions were set up calling on the board to lower the grade boundaries when marking. Edexcel’s owner Pearson said it aimed to “test the full range” of abilities. But it said it would ensure students were “treated fairly” when the papers are marked. [BBC] See Top Twitter Trends (UK)

Video of the Day –

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation Trailer 2

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#PSYAngBatasNgApi	Rick Perry	#EdexcelMaths
2	#MeSobranGanasDe	#CheeseFilms	#ProsOfDatingMe
3	#SiempreMePasaQue	#PitMad	#GeekPickUpLines
4	メンタルヘルス	Hannah Montana	#CheeseFilms
5	Rick Perry	#ProsOfDatingMe	#ComplimentYourselfIn4Words
6	#FelizJueves	#GeekPickUpLines	#OrangeFestBands
7	#KeferaNoEncontro	#NBAFinals	Charlotte Church
8	#SeriaRePiolaQue	#HugYourCatDay	Royal Mail
9	#GeekPickUpLines	#DuggarInterview	Skrtel
10	#شعورك_الان_بت�…	Michael Ealy	Chuck Blazer

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Several rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel and exploded near the cities of Ashdod, Netivot and Ashkelon causing no casualties. The IDFretaliated with airstrikes against empty Hamas training camps in Gaza. (Al Jazeera)
Naxalite Insurgents kill at least 10 Indian Army soldiers and injure 12 in an attack on a convoy in the state of Manipur. (BBC)

Arts and culture

St Benet’s Hall at Oxford University decides to admit women, making it the last of the University’s institutions to do so. (Reuters Trust)

Business and economy

Officials of the ruling Syriza party in Greece say that they cannot accept a last-minute deal proposed by the country’s creditors: default deadline looms. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

Sinking of the Dong Fang Zhi Xing
- The death toll from the Monday night sinking of the cruise ship in the Yangtze River rises to 75 with most of the 450 passengers on board still missing. (The Guardian), (NBC News)
An explosion at a gas station in Accra, Ghana, kills at least 78 people. (Al Jazeera)

Health

Surgeons, led by Dr. Jesse Selber, working with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in a 15-hour, 12-doctor operation, perform the world’s first partial-skull and scalp transplant, at Houston Methodist Hospital, on 55-year-old Jim Boysten, a software developer from Austin, Texas suffering from a large head wound from cancer treatment; immediately afterward, he was finally able to receive a new kidney and pancreas, which replaced the previous transplants that were failing. (MSN)
2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in South Korea
- The number of people with Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea rises to 35 with over 700 schools suspending classes due to fears of the syndrome. (Xinhua)
Panel of advisors to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends approval of flibanserin by 18–6 to improve a woman’s libido. (NPR)

International relations

Associated Press reports that there has been a massive hack from the American Office of Personnel Management and US Department of the Interior with the Washington Post claiming that Chinese hackers were responsible. The records of at least four million US Government workers are believed to have been compromised. (AP), (Washington Post), (The Telegraph)

Politics

United States presidential election, 2016
- Former Governor of Texas Rick Perry announces that he will be a candidate for the Republican Party. (CNN)
USA Freedom Act
- President Barack Obama signs the bill, reinstating expired provisions of the Patriot Act while reforming Section 215 of the Act. (NBC)

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June 10, 2015

Top News Stories –

The genius behind ‘Headless Body in Topless Bar’ headline dies at 74 –
Vincent A. Musetto, who wrote the greatest headline in New York newspaper history, died Tuesday at 74 from cancer. “Headless Body in Topless Bar” ran on The Post’s front page on April 15, 1983. As witty as it was horrific, it expressed with unflinching precision the city’s accelerating tailspin into an abyss of atrocious crime and chaos. Post editor- in-chief Col Allan said, “V.A. Musetto was one of the legends of our business, and he became famous for a truly classic headline. But for those who worked with him and mourn him today, V.A. offered so much more: Humor. A sharp critical eye. A personal warmth with his colleagues, and deep love for The Post and its readers. All will miss him.” [Daily Post]
New York Post headline April 15, 1083

Chinese actress Zhao Wei sued for ‘staring’ at man through his TV set –
A Chinese actress is being sued after a man claims she “stared at him too intensely” through his TV set. The lawsuit was filed by a man in Shanghai after he watched Zhao Wei in a series called Tiger Mom, which debuted last month. A new law making it harder for courts in China to reject lawsuits has led to concerns of a rise in the number of frivolous claims being made. The rules came into force on 1 May with a 29% rise in cases reported in China. The Supreme People’s Court says there were just over a million cases filed compared with same period last year. [BBC Newsbeat]
Zhao Wei

Video of the Day –

Trailer For ‘Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2’

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#YaEsMuyNormalQue	Juan Felipe Herrera	#ILoveMuseums
2	#TeLoDigoEnUnaCancionDeRock	#nationalicedteaday	#HumpDay
3	#FelizMiercoles	#InThe90sIThought	#BoringRealityShows
4	Forfun	#MakeAMoviePainful	#MakeAMoviePainful
5	#MasterChefBR	#INeedStraightPrideBecause	#ROWYSOManchester
6	#ElDiaSeRePrestaPara	#BoringRealityShows	Marguerite Patten
7	#BoringRealityShows	#HumpDay	#InThe90sIThought
8	The Warriors	Montel Williams	Tim Hunt
9	#من_علامات_الج�…	#HasBecomeAHobbyOfMine	The Arches
10	Curry	#CMTAwards	#PMQs

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

A suicide bomber targets the Karnak temple site in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor. Two militants were shot nearby, four Egyptians were wounded with no tourists hurt in the attack. (ITV News), (BBC), (Fox News), (AP)
American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
- President Barack Obama authorizes up to 450 additional troops in Iraq to train Sunni forces. (CNN)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- At least 43 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen. [1]

Disasters and accidents

Indonesia‘s Mount Sinabung eruption resumes spewing gas leading to the evacuation of 3,000 nearby residents. (AFP and AP via Economic Times)

Health

2015 South Korean MERS outbreak
- The death toll from the MERS outbreak in South Korea rises to nine, with 13 new cases reported. More than 2,200 schools have closed or cancelled classes as a result of the outbreak. (Reuters)

Law and crime

The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil strikes down a law allowing the subjects of biographies to quash works they disapprove of. (AP)

Sports

Bidding for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is postponed due to the 2015 FIFA corruption case and the subsequent resignation of Sepp Blatter. (Reuters via ABC Australia)

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June 14, 2015

Top News Stories –

Philae comet lander wakes up, says European Space Agency –
The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth. Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November. It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat. The comet has since moved nearer to the Sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC’s science correspondent Jonathan Amos. An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?” On its blog, Esa said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds on Saturday in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.

Artist’s impression of the Philae lander

Jurassic World takes $511m in record opening weekend –
The fourth instalment in the Jurassic Park series has become the first film to take more than $500m at the box office on its opening weekend. Jurassic World was the most popular screening in all 66 countries where it was released. The film made $204.6m (£131.4m) in the US, according to the firm Exhibitor Relations. It took $100m in China and $29.6m (£19m) in the UK and Ireland as part of the record global total of $511.8m. The Universal Pictures release had the second-highest grossing opening weekend in the US. The record is held by Marvel’s The Avengers, which took $207.4m in 2012. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Jurassic World – Official Global Trailer

List of the Day –

Biggest Worldwide film openings since 2002 [from Wikipedia]

Rank	Film	Year	Opening (USD)^[1]
1	Jurassic World	2015	$511,800,000
2	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	2011	$483,189,427
3	Furious 7	2015	$397,627,459
4	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	2009	$394,022,354
5	Marvel’s The Avengers	2012	$392,538,708
6	Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	$392,471,109
7	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	2011	$382,425,000
8	Spider-Man 3	2007	$381,660,892
9	Iron Man 3	2013	$372,553,677
10	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	2011	$350,653,677
11	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End	2007	$343,972,864
12	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2	2012	$340,667,634
13	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	2007	$332,715,157
14	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	2010	$330,017,372
15	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	2005	$303,949,700
16	Transformers: Age of Extinction	2014	$302,138,390
17	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1	2011	$291,022,261
18	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	2009	$274,939,137
19	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1	2014	$273,897,634
20	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	2008	$272,150,927
21	X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	$262,866,321
22	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	$250,000,534
23	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	$248,887,295
24	Avatar	2009	$241,571,046
25	The Da Vinci Code	2006	$232,074,037
26	2012	2009	$230,470,474
27	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	2010	$228,893,465
28	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	2012	$222,617,303
29	Iron Man 2	2010	$220,766,270
30	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	2009	$219,921,171
31	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	2009	$218,430,064
32	The Hunger Games	2012	$211,785,747
33	Alice in Wonderland	2010	$210,101,023
34	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	2013	$209,845,197
35	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	$207,197,367
36	War of the Worlds	2005	$203,061,125
37	Man of Steel	2013	$201,981,486
38	The Matrix Revolutions	2003	$201,390,000
39	Iron Man	2008	$201,174,140

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ARGENTINARMY	Roc Nation	Toke
2	#AskRachel	#zayniscomingback	#GETWELLSOONCALUM
3	#ComoOdioAEsosQue	#FlagDay	Rolf Harris
4	Bolivia	#ICouldUseALittleMore	Snowden
5	Fede Bal	#NWC2015	#zayniscomingback
6	Jurassic World	#RedFlags	#UFC188
7	Dave Grohl	#MITB	#SLOvENG
8	#GoodForYou	Tbilisi	Michael
9	#AssistamTeuOlharFLY	Good Sunday	#HappyBirthdayJesy
10	Vuoso	#GETWELLSOONCALUM	Townsend

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  - Fifteen Taliban militants, including the shadow governor for Kunar Province, are killed in a NATO airstrike. (IANS via Business Standard)
- Syrian Civil War
  - Thousands of Syrians flee into Turkey as Kurdish fighters come closer to capturing the border town of Tell Abyad from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. (AP)
Disasters and accidents
- 2015 Tbilisi flood
  - Flooding in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, destroys animal enclosures at a zoo resulting in the release of potentially dangerous animals and the death of three zookeepers and six other people. (AP), (USA Today), (Reuters, DPA via WA Today)
Health
- 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
  - A South Korean man is hospitalised in the Slovak capital Bratislava with symptoms of MERS as the death toll in Korea rises to 15. (Sky News Australia), (Al-Jazeera)
International relations
- Save The Children
  - Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan has suspended its order against the NGO Save the Children for closure of its working and allowed the international aid agency to resume its operation in Pakistan. (Express Tribune) (ARY Digital )
- A South Korean official claims that North Korea is placing land mines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone to stop soldiers from defecting. The Korean DMZ already contains an estimated 1 million mines. (Yonhap)
Law and crime
- International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur
  - The International Criminal Court asks South Africa to arrest the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes when he arrives at the African Union summit. (AFP via Straits-Times
  - The High Court in Pretoria grants an interim order preventing the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir from leaving South Africa, and postpones the application for his arrest to Monday 15 June, 2015 to allow the government more time to prepare. (News24) (News24)
Politics and elections
- Thousands of people march in Hong Kong to demand the Legislative Council reject a China backed proposal for the naming of candidates forChief Executive be done by a nominating committee. (Bloomberg)
Science
- The European Space Agency‘s Philae spacecraft wakes up after six months in hibernation as comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko gets closer to the sun. (BBC)
Sport
- In motor sport, the Porsche 19 team of Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Nico Hulkenberg wins the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Fox Sports)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

June 17, 2015

Top News Stories –

Angolan capital remains ‘most expensive city’ for expats –
The Angolan capital, Luanda, remains the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, according to an annual survey by consultancy Mercer. The city has held the number one spot for the past three years because of the high cost of rent, imported goods and security in the oil-rich nation. However, the rest of the cost of living rankings saw significant shifts due to exchange rate fluctuations. Asian cities now account for half of the top 10 costliest destinations. Hong Kong rose to second place and Singapore remained in fourth because of their expensive property and rental markets. Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul also made the top 10. [BBC] See List of the Day

Madonna premieres star-studded ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ video on Tidal –
Madonna has unveiled her new video – complete with cameo appearances by Beyonce, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry – on the new streaming service [launched in March] she runs with stars including Jay Z and Kanye West. The video for Bitch I’m Madonna, from her well-received Rebel Heart album, will be shown exclusively on the Tidal service for 24 hours before being released to the wider public. The line-up on the video, which was filmed in New York, also includes Nicki Minaj, new X Factor judge Rita Ora, Chris Rock and Madonna’s sons Rocco and David. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day
Madonna

South Carolina church shooting: Nine die in Charleston ‘hate crime’ –
Nine people have died in a shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston in the US state of South Carolina, officials say. City police chief Gregory Mullen said eight of the victims were killed inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday evening, while another person died shortly afterwards. Police are now searching for a white male suspect in his 20s. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

TIDAL | Madonna ft. Nicki Minaj | Bitch I’m Madonna Behind the scenes

List of the Day –

The 25 costliest cities for living abroad

2015	2014	Change	City	Country
1	1	–	Luanda	Angola
2	3	+1	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
3	5	+2	Zurich	Switzerland
4	4	–	Singapore	Singapore
5	6	+1	Geneva	Switzerland
6	10	+4	Shanghai	China
7	11	+4	Beijing	China
8	14	+6	Seoul	South Korea
9	8	-1	Bern	Switzerland
10	2	-8	N’Djamena	Chad
11	7	-4	Tokyo	Japan
12	12	–	London	United Kingdom
13	20	+7	Kinshasa	Congo
14	17	+3	Shenzhen	China
15	24	+9	Guangzhou	China
16	16	–	New York City	United States
17	13	-4	Victoria	Seychelles
18	18	–	Tel Aviv	Israel
19	86	+67	Buenos Aires	Argentina
20	25	+5	Lagos	Nigeria
21	54	+33	Shenyang	China
22	34	+12	Conakry	Guinea
23	67	+44	Dubai	United Arab Emirates
24	15	-9	Copenhagen	Denmark
25	48	+24	Qingdao	China

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	Süleyman Demirel	#ExplainParadiseIn4Words	#fortheloveof
2	#3PalabrasAntesDelSexo	#putchocolateinasong	#FixtureReleaseDay
3	#MeAcaboDeDarCuentaQue	#Trumplebrags	#WeCantDateIf
4	Ramadan Mubarak	Madonna	#RuinAFineBook
5	#ARGENTINAESFUERTE	Hump Day	#PMQs
6	#OruçTutmuyorumÇünkü	#IfMyDadWasPresident	Boxing Day
7	#QuedasteReMalCuando	#StatueofLiberty	Man City
8	#Vidal	#BuyNotTheOnlyOne	Florence
9	Aritana	#SlowJamAMovie	Stoke
10	Salam Ramadhan	#JunkFoodAMovie	#labourdebate

Other News Stories –

Attacks and armed conflicts

2015 Charleston, South Carolina shooting
- Nine people are dead following a mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. (CNN),(Post and Courier), (ABC News America)

Arts and culture

The American NBC network announces that Lester Holt will continue as the host of the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams returning in an undisclosed role. (The Wrap)

Business and economy

The United States announces that it will replace Alexander Hamilton on the ten-dollar bill with a woman chosen after public debate. (The Hill)
In the United States, the California Labor Commission has ruled that a San Francisco Uber driver is a company employee, not a contractor. Uber is appealing this ruling, that would increase the company’s costs and liabilities, to the state’s court system. A hearing for a class certification of a similar lawsuit against Uber is scheduled for August 2015.(NPR) (Time Magazine)

Disasters and accidents

North Korea runs a campaign to fight water drought, which according to United Nations is the worst within the past 100 years. (Reuters)

International relations

The People’s Republic of China and Australia sign a free trade agreement in Canberra as Andrew Robb, Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment, warns that the United States Congress only has weeks to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership. (CCTV via Twitter), (AP)
Vietnam accuses China of attacking Vietnamese fishermen in three separate incidents in the South China Sea. (AP)

Politics and elections

Protesters gather outside the Hong Kong Legislative Council ahead of a contentious vote on election of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong.(Deutsche Welle)
The National Diet of Japan votes to lower the voting age from 20 to 18. (Mainichi)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

June 25, 2015

Top News Stories –

Avengers star Patrick Macnee dies –
Actor Patrick Macnee, star of The Avengers TV series, has died in California at the age of 93. The Briton, best known for playing John Steed in the 1960s television spy series, died at home with his family at his bedside, his son Rupert said. Macnee also played roles in theatre, appearing on Broadway, and served in the Royal Navy during World War Two. A statement on the actor’s website read: “Wherever he went, he left behind a trove of memories.” He died peacefully at his home in California’s Rancho Mirage. [BBC] See List of the Day below
Patrick Macnee in Lobster man from Mars

Clint Dempsey gets two-year US cup ban for outburst –
Clint Dempsey has been banned from the US Open Cup for two years after ripping up a referee’s notebook during a game. The Seattle Sounders forward, 33, flicked the notebook out of Daniel Radford’s hand, picked it up off the pitch and then tore it into pieces after a team-mate had been sent off. The ex-Fulham and Spurs man was duly sent off, as Seattle ended with seven men in a 3-1 loss to Portland Timbers. The US captain is banned for six games or two years – whichever is longer. [BBC]
Clint Dempsey

France cracks down on Uber service after protests –
France’s interior minister has ordered a ban on the low-cost car-sharing service UberPOP after a day of nationwide protests by taxi drivers. Bernard Cazeneuve said the service was “illegal” and ordered police and prosecutors to enforce its closure. His announcement followed a day of sometimes violent protests by French taxi drivers, who say the US-based firm Uber is stealing their livelihoods. [BBC]

US spy chief James Clapper says China lead suspect in cyber hack –
China is the “leading suspect” in the massive hack of a US government agency holding the personnel records of millions of Americans, US intelligence chief James Clapper has said. He is the highest-ranking US official to publicly implicate Beijing since news of the data breach emerged. China always dismissed suggestions that it was behind the hacking. The statement comes after three days of high-level talks in which China and the US agreed to a “code of conduct”. “China remains the leading suspects,” said Mr Clapper at a conference in Washington DC, but “the US government continues to investigate” he added, according to his office.
James_R._Clapper, US intelligence Chief

Video of the Day –

Legacy from MURAT SAYGINER on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Patrick Macnee Filmography [from Wikipedia]

1948 : Hamlet (as Extra)
1949 : The Small Back Room (Extra, uncredited)
1950 : The Girl Is Mine
1950 : Dick Barton at Bay
1950 : The Elusive Pimpernel
1951 : Scrooge (A Christmas Carol in USA) (as young Jacob Marley)
1953 : Tales of Adventure (TV series)
1955 : Three Cases of Murder
1956 : The Battle of the River Plate
1957 : Les Girls
1959 : The Twilight Zone (TV series – Episode “Judgment Night“)
1959 : Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (TV series)
1961−1969 : The Avengers (TV series)
1971 : Alias Smith and Jones (TV series)
1972 : Incense for the Damned
1975 : Columbo: Troubled Waters
1976 : Sherlock Holmes in New York (TV film)
1976−1977 : The New Avengers (TV series)
1977 : Dead of Night (TV film)
1977 : King Solomon’s Treasure
1978 : Evening in Byzantium (TV film)
1978 : Battlestar Galactica
1979 : The Billion Dollar Threat
1980 : The Littlest Hobo
1980 : The Sea Wolves
1981 : The Howling
1981 : The Hot Touch
1982 : Rehearsal for Murder (TV film)
1982 : Young Doctors in Love
1982 : Gavilan (TV series)

1983 : The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1983 : Sweet Sixteen
1983 : The Creature Wasn’t Nice
1983 : For the Term of His Natural Life
1984 : This Is Spinal Tap
1985 : A View to a Kill
1985 : Lime Street
1985 : Shadey
1988 : Waxwork
1988 : Transformations
1989 : Eye of the Widow
1989 : Lobster Man From Mars
1989 : Around the World in 80 Days (TV miniseries)
1989 : Masque of the Red Death
1989 : The Return of Sam McCloud
1991 : The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw
1991 : Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (TV film)
1992 : Incident at Victoria Falls (TV film)
1992 : Waxwork II: Lost in Time
1992 : Super Force (TV series)
1993 : The Hound of London
1993 : King B: A Life in the Movies
1994 : Thunder in Paradise (TV series)
1994 : Don’t Look Back In Anger (Music video)
1996 : Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Temporal Nexus
1997 : Night Man (TV series)
1998 : The Avengers
1999 : Nancherrow (TV film)
2000 : Ian Fleming: 007’s Creator (documentary)
2003 : The Low Budget Time Machine

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#6YearsWithoutMichaelJackson	#6YearsWithoutMichaelJackson	#6YearsWithoutMichaelJackson
2	#WeAreReadyForLarry	#AlcoholicMovies	#3WordFashionAdvice
3	#NeMutluTürküzDiyene	#ImNotReallyLazyBut	Cavani
4	AlwaysWithYouJustin	#3WordFashionAdvice	Helen
5	#TerroristTurkey	#HispanicGirlsUnited	Oxford English Dictionary
6	#LasMañanasSeHicieronPara	#SCOTUS	#ImNotLeavingTwitterUntil
7	TeröristPKK YPG	Draft Day	Network Rail
8	#taxis	#WeAreReadyForLarry	#WatchNewStitchesVideo
9	Jara	F-16	#WeAreReadyForLarry
10	Eloy	#NBADraft	#WWENXT

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces re-enter the Kurdish town of Kobanî after a successful large-scale counterattack against the Kurds.(BBC)

Business and economy

Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, opens a new terminal at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pakistani heat wave
- The death toll from the heat wave passes 1,000 in Sindh province alone. (CNN)
The wreckage of a small plane carrying eight passengers on a shore excursion from Holland America Line‘s MS Westerdam cruise ship near theAlaskan town of Ketchikan. All nine people on board including the pilot died. (AP via Seattle Times)

Health

2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
- The number of MERS casualties in South Korea rises to 29 with the number of cases rising to 180. (Yonhap)

International relations

India offers Nepal an additional billion dollars to help it recover from the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
South Africa reviews its participation in the International Criminal Court following a failed attempt to arrest the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, on South African soil. (BBC)
The Prime Minister of Haiti Evans Paul accuses the Dominican Republic of causing a humanitarian crisis by mass deportation of people mainly from Haiti. (AP via Star Tribune)

Law and crime

The Committee to Protect Journalists claims that the Government of Egypt has incarcerated 18 journalists, mostly from Al-Jazeera. (AP via The Guardian)
More than 400 Albanian police supported by Army helicopters surround the village of Lazarat in southern Albania known as the “cannabisKingdom” where an armed criminal gang has entrenched itself. (AFP via ABCNews Australia)
A journalist from CNN is shot and killed in the Philippines, the 27th journalist murdered during the administration of Benigno Aquino III. (Rappler)
King v. Burwell
- The Supreme Court of the United States upholds key elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) including subsidies for healthcare policies and employer mandates, with a 6-3 vote. (CNBC)

Politics and elections

The United States House of Representatives votes to grant President Barack Obama fast track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. (AP)

Sports

In basketball, the 2015 NBA draft is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with the Minnesota Timberwolves selecting Karl-Anthony Towns as the first pick. (Los Angeles Times)

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July 5, 2015

Top News Stories –

Greece votes ‘No’ and gambles its future –
Greek voters have delivered a defiant response to Europe. Political leaders and heads of government had lined up to warn the Greeks that a “No” vote would be a vote to leave the euro. It did not deter them. Indeed many voters seemed to revel in their resistance. The European Project is now facing its gravest crisis. [BBC]

USA beat Japan 5-2 in Women’s FIFA World Cup Final –
Carli Lloyd scored an incredible 13-minute hat-trick as the United States thrashed Japan to win their third Women’s World Cup title. In a repeat of the 2011 final, which Japan won on penalties, the Nadeshiko could not live with their stronger and quicker opponents, who went 4-0 up when Lloyd scored an astonishing third from the halfway line. The pulsating finale to an entertaining tournament was the highest-scoring final in the tournament’s history, and matched the highest scoring men’s final, when Brazil defeated Sweden by the same scoreline in 1958. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Carli Lloyd

Video of the Day –

List of the Day –

FIFA Women’s World Cup results [from Wikipedia]

Year	Host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place	Teams
1991	China	United States	2–1	Norway	Sweden	4–0	Germany	12
1995	Sweden	Norway	2–0	Germany	United States	2–0	China PR	12
1999	United States	United States	0–0 a.e.t. (5–4 pen)	China PR	Brazil	0–0 ^[A] (5–4 pen)	Norway	16
2003	United States	Germany	2–1 asdet	Sweden	United States	3–1	Canada	16
2007	China	Germany	2–0	Brazil	United States	4–1	Norway	16
2011	Germany	Japan	2–2 a.e.t. (3–1 pen)	United States	Sweden	2–1	France	16
2015	Canada	United States	5–2	Japan	England	1–0 a.e.t.	Germany	24

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ToNoTwitterPq	Happy 5th of July	#greekreferendum
2	#QueLindoEstariaQue	#USAvJPN	Chile
3	デスノート	#dontjudgechallange	Messi
4	#Grefenderum	#ImThatGirlfriend	#UKBuyWorthIt
5	AGUANTE MESSI CARETAS	#YouMightBeARacist	#PutWalesinaFilm
6	Dragon Ball Super	#WeLoveYouHalsey	Argentina
7	#كم_رصيد_حسابك	#BadCharitiesToDonateTo	#YouMightBeARacist
8	#شي_مانستغني_عنه	#MakeAMovieMoreAmerican	Sanchez
9	Messi	Best 4th of July	#BritishGP
10	Vidal	Take Jackson Off the $20 Bill	#marr

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts

American-led intervention in Syria
- A United States bombing campaign against ISIL has killed at least 30 people in the Syrian city of Al-Raqqah. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Iraq War (2014–present)
- Iraqi government air strikes kill at least 73 people in the ISIL held cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. (Al-Jazeera)
War in North-West Pakistan
- A roadside bomb in North Waziristan kills at least three Pakistan Army soldiers and injures six others. (AFP via Daily Star)
Boko Haram
- A suicide bomber attacks a church in the Potiskum area of Nigeria‘s Yobe State, killing five and raising the toll of Boko Haram attacks for the past week to 200. (BBC) (DailyStar via AP)

Arts and culture

UNESCO adds more sites to the World Heritage List including the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park in the US city of San Antonio, Texasand Scotland‘s Forth Bridge. (My San Antonio), (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Over 1000 people in the Philippines are stranded temporarily by Severe Tropical Storm Linfa (Egay) as landslides occur in Palawan province.(GMA Network)
Canadian wildfires
- More than 60 wildfires start in the Canadian province of British Columbia over the weekend leading to several communities declaring a state of emergency. (CBC)
- Nearly 1,000 military personnel are sent to fight wildfires in Saskatchewan, (CTV)

Politics and elections

Greek bailout referendum, 2015
- Greek voters solidly rejected (61.3 percent) the latest austerity proposal of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and theEuropean Central Bank. (Sky News), (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and the President of France Francois Hollande call for an international summit of Eurozone leaders to discuss the next moves. (Bloomberg)
- The Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras resigns as leader of his party, New Democracy; the new temporary leader is Evangelos Meimarakis. (To Vima)

Science and technology

A Russian space capsule reaches the International Space Station allowing resupply of provisions after the crash of the SpaceX space capsule last week. (CNN)

Sports

2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup
- The United States defeats defending champion Japan, 5-2, to win the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia,Canada. (BBC) (AP via Washington Post)
2015 British Grand Prix
- In motorsport, Lewis Hamilton wins the race for the second consecutive year with team mate Nico Rosberg finishing second. (News24)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

July 10, 2015

Top News Stories –

Omar Sharif, actor – dies aged 83 –
Omar Sharif was the most famous Egyptian actor of his generation. He brought a smouldering intensity to films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. A man of striking good looks he escorted some of the world’s most beautiful women. But he quit acting to become a ubiquitous presence at the world’s most exclusive gaming tables. [BBC]
Omar Sharif

Greece’s Parliament Approves Prime Minister’s Bailout Plan –
Setting the stage for a pivotal deal with Europe, the Greek Parliament early Saturday approved Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s proposal for a three-year, $59 billion rescue package with harsh austerity terms that was remarkably similar to the one Greek voters rejected in a referendum less than a week ago. With a Sunday deadline looming for a decision on the bailout, a crunch point that all sides see as Greece’s last chance to avoid bankruptcy and stay in the euro currency zone, the plan passed by an overwhelming margin. [NY Times] Alexis Tsipras was elected on January 25, 2015 and vowed to reverse many of the austerity measures adopted by Greece since a series of bailouts began in 2010.
Alexis Tsipras

Video of the Day –

Game of Thrones: Audition Reel (HBO)

List of the Day –

Omar Sharif filmography [from Wikipedia]


Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Shaytan al-Sahra^[56]		Known as Devil of the Sahara
1954	Sira` Fi al-Wadi	Ahmed	Also known as The Blazing Sun or Struggle in the Valley or Fight in the Valley
1955	Ayyamna al-Holwa	Ahmed	Also known as Our Best Days
1956	Sira` Fi al-Mina	Ragab
1957	Ard al-Salam	Ahmed	Known as Land of Peace
1957	The Lebanese Mission	Mokrir	Original title was La Châtelaine du Liban; credited as Omar Cherif
1958	La Anam	Aziz	Also known as Sleepless and No Tomorrow
1958	Goha	Goha	Credited as Omar Cherif
1959	Sayyidat al-Qasr	Adel	Lady of the Palace
1959	Siraa fil Nil^[57]	Muhassab	Struggle on the Nile
1960	Bidaya wa Nihaya	Hassanien
	Hobi al-Wahid		My Only Love
	Esha’a hob	Hussein	A Rumor of Love
	Nahr al-Hob	Khalid	The River of Love
1961	A Man in our House^[57]	Ibrahim	في بيتنا رجل
1962	Lawrence of Arabia	Sherif Ali	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1964	The Fall of the Roman Empire	Sohamus
	Behold a Pale Horse	Francisco
	The Yellow Rolls-Royce	Davich
1965	Genghis Khan	Genghis Khan
	Marco the Magnificent	Sheik Alla Hou, ‘The Desert Wind’
	Doctor Zhivago	Dr. Zhivago (Yuri)	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1966	The Poppy Is Also a Flower	Dr. Rad
1967	The Night of the Generals	Major Grau
1967	More Than a Miracle	Prince Rodrigo Fernandez
1968	Funny Girl	Nick Arnstein
1968	Mayerling	Archduke Rudolf
1969	Mackenna’s Gold	Colorado
	The Appointment	Frenderico Fendi
	Che!	Che Guevara
1970	The Last Valley	Vogel
1971	The Horsemen	Uraz
1971	The Burglars	Abel Zacharia	simultaneously shot in French as Le Casse with the same cast
1974	The Tamarind Seed	Feodor Sverdlov
1974	Juggernaut	Captain Axel Brunel
1975	Funny Lady	Nicky Arnstein
1976	Ace Up My Sleeve	Andre Ferren	also known as Crime and Passion
1976	The Pink Panther Strikes Again	Egyptian assassin	uncredited cameo
1979	Ashanti: Land of No Mercy	Prince Hassan
1979	Bloodline	Ivo Palazzi
1980	SHE^[58]	Baron Cesare Magnasco	SHE: Security Hazards Expert
	The Baltimore Bullet	The Deacon
	Oh! Heavenly Dog	Bart
1981	Green Ice	Meno Argenti
1981	Inchon	Indian officer	uncredited cameo
1984	Top Secret!	Agent Cedric
1987	Grand Larceny	Rashid Saud
1988	The Possessed	Stepan	Les Possédés
1988	Les Pyramides bleues (fr)^[59]	Alex	The Novice
1989	Al-aragoz ^[60]	Mohamed Gad El Kareem	The Puppeteer
1990	The Rainbow Thief	Dima
1991	Mowaten masri		An Egyptian Citizen
1992	Beyond Justice	Emir Beni-Zair
	Mayrig	Hagop
	588 rue paradis	Hagop	Mother
1993	Dehk we le’b we gad we hob^[57]		Laughter, Games, Seriousness and Love
1997	Heaven Before I Die	Khalil Gibran
1998	Mysteries of Egypt	Grandfather	Documentary
1999	The 13th Warrior	Melchisideck
2001	The Parole Officer	Victor
2003	Monsieur Ibrahim	Monsieur Ibrahim	César Award for Best Actor
2004	Hidalgo	Sheikh Riyadh
2006	One Night with the King	Prince Memucan
2006	“The 10 commandments“	Jethro (شعيب)
2008	Hassan & Marcus	Hassan/Morcus	Hassan wa Morcus
2008	10,000 BC	Narrator	Voice only
2009	The Traveller	Older Hassan	Commonly known as Al Mosafer
2009	J’ai oublié de te dire^[61]	Jaume	I forgot to Tell You
2013	Rock the Casbah	Moulay Hassan
2015	1001 Inventions and the World of Ibn Al-Haytham	Grandfather/Narrator	Voice; final film role^[4]

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#OhNoHarry	#DescribeTwitterIn3Words	#DescribeTwitterIn3Words
2	#DescribeTwitterIn3Words	Deron Williams	#fridayfeeling
3	#FanArmyFaceOff	#USWNTParade	#OhNoHarry
4	#WeForgiveYouAriana	#WhiteGirlsDoItBetter	#BattleOfBritain
5	Omar Sharif	#VoteMoose	Omar Sharif
6	#NoEresMujerSi	#OhNoHarry	#WeForgiveYouAriana
7	#MatiasElegidos	#WeForgiveYouAriana	Prince Philip
8	#BuenViernes	Omar Sharif	#WeCantBeFriendsIf
9	Federer	Go Set a Watchman	#bbcqt
10	おおかみこども	Dirty Sprite 2	Go Set A Watchman

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- Al Shabaab militants have stormed two hotels in Somalia‘s capital Mogadishu killing at least 10 civilians. (ABC News AU) (Business Standard via AFP)
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- Turkey arrests 21 people with alleged links to Daesh (ISIL). (New York Times)

Businesses and economy

Greek government-debt crisis
- A bailout plan is submitted two hours before the midnight deadline. The plan would raise a retirement age to 67 and cut pensions by 15% for those retiring at 62. (LA Times)(Money Control)
Ellen Pao resigns as the interim CEO of Internet site reddit following a user backlash over the deletion of some subreddits for harassment and sacking of a popular admin. Site co-founder Steve Huffman will take her place. (WSJ)

Disasters and accidents

At least 23 people have been killed and 50 injured following a stampede at a free clothing drive in the northern Bangladeshi city of Mymensingh.(BBC)
Wildfires continue to rage throughout the western Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. (ABC News)
2015 Pacific typhoon season
- China is dealing with two typhoons in a week. Typhoon Linfa lost power after making landfall in southern China’s Guangdong province Thursday. Typhoon Chan-hom (Falcon) is headed for landfall in eastern China near Shanghai this weekend. (CNN) (CRI English)(Weather Channel)
Indonesia closes four airports including Bali International Airport due to an ongoing eruption by the Raung volcano on Java. (Reuters via Trust)

International relations

The United States State Department criticizes Thailand for deporting ethnic Uyghur back to China. The predominantly Uyghur Xinjiang province is the site of an ongoing political and religious crackdown in response to a wave of Muslim terrorist attacks in China. (NPR)

Law and crime

The Federal Bureau of Investigation admits that Dylann Roof, the suspect in the Charleston church shooting, should not have passed abackground check to obtain a gun licence. (ABC News)

Politics and elections

Katherine Archuleta resigns as the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management following the hacking of 21.5 million data records. (CNN)
Following public outcry after the Charleston church shooting, the Confederate Battle Flag is lowered at the South Carolina State House after 54 years. (CNN)

Science and technology

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches five commercial satellites for the United Kingdom. (IBN Live)

Sport

2015 Pan American Games
- The Games officially commence following Friday’s opening ceremony in Toronto. (Canadian Press via CP24)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

July 22, 2015

Top News Stories –

Madonna compares herself to Pablo Picasso –
Madonna thinks artists deep into their careers should stop if they do not have anything more to say. But at 56, the singer says she wants to keep going – and feels like Pablo Picasso. “I like to compare myself to other kinds of artists like Picasso. He kept painting and painting until the day he died. Why? Because I guess he felt inspired to do so,” she said. “Life inspired him, so he had to keep expressing himself, and that’s how I feel.” Madonna released her self-titled debut album in 1983, and her latest album, “Rebel Heart,” earlier this year. She said the key to sticking around is her continual desire to inspire others. “I don’t think there’s a time, a date, an expiration date for being creative,” she said. “I think you go until you don’t have any more to say.” [Daily Telegraph] Madonna launched her latest video on June 17, 2015
Madonna

Taylor Swift Chinese clothing line with ‘TS’ and ‘1989’ touches Tiananmen Square nerve –
Taylor Swift has accidentally touched a political nerve in the lead up to her China tour by promoting merchandise with the letters ‘TS’ and the date ‘1989’ — shared by the Tiananmen Square massacre, which remains heavily censored in mainland China. The American star was due to launch her new range of clothing on China’s biggest retailer platforms, Taobao and Jing Dong (JD.com), in the run up to her forthcoming China tour. However, the tour slated for November, could be jeopardised given the sensitive nature of the cack-handed reference. Both the tour and album were named after Swift’s date of birth, 1989, but also allude to the year in which reportedly thousands of innocent civilians were mown down by government forces in Beijing among student protests. [Daily Telegraph]
Taylor Swift

A $7 Billion Charge at Microsoft Leads to Its Largest Loss Ever –
An accounting charge wiped out Microsoft’s profit for the quarter, leading to its largest loss ever, the company said on Tuesday, making clear the cost of its missteps in the mobile business. The $7.5 billion accounting charge, stemming from Microsoft’s troubled acquisition of Nokia’s cellphone business, was disclosed by the company earlier this month, along with plans to eliminate 7,800 jobs, mostly in the company’s phone operations. While the accounting charge was on paper and will not diminish the company’s huge cash hoard, it was a psychic blow to Microsoft, one of the biggest money makers in tech. [NY Times]

Video of the Day –

SPECTRE – James Bond trailer

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#HarryAppreciationDay	#UnexcitingVideoGames	#HarryAppreciationDay
2	Drake	#IfICouldTalkToGod	#Spectre
3	#TwitterBlockinTurkey	#Spectre	Oh My Vlog
4	#MasterChefBR	#5YearsOfOneDirection	Tony Blair
5	#تخصص_تحبه_وما�…	Space Jam 2	Drake
6	#nochedeconfesiones	North Brunswick	#Savebees
7	#OTRAEdmonton	Drake	#UnexcitingVideoGames
8	Lily Rabe	#BabyJams	Piers Morgan
9	#EuSeiQue	#OTRAEdmonton	Taylor
10	#افضل_ماده_درس�…	OG Maco	#HappyBirthdayPrinceGeorge

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

A suicide bomb attack kills at least 15 people in northern Afghanistan. (CNN)
Two explosions in the Nigerian city of Gombe killed at least 29 people. (Reuters)

Arts and Culture

The University of Oxford has radiocarbon dated fragments, of what apparently is the world’s oldest Quran, to between 568 A.D. and 645 A.D. The animal skin parchment was found hidden inside the pages of another book in England’s University of Birmingham library. (Daily Mail) (Deutsche Welle)

Business and economy

The European Central Bank provides an extra 900 million euros to the Greek banks. (The Independent)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Studénka train crash
- Three people die in a collision between a Pendolino train and a lorry that occurred near Studénka, north Moravia, in the Czech Republic.(Yahoo news) (ABC news) (ČTK)

Law and crime

Charleston church shooting
- Dylann Roof, the suspect in the murder of nine people in the American city of Charleston, South Carolina, is indicted on dozens of federal offenses including hate crimes. (The Guardian)
The former prime minister of Egypt, Ahmed Nazif, is sentenced to five years in prison after losing appeal against 3-year prison sentence forcorruption. (Cairo Post)

Science and technology

The finals of the robot football World Cup are held. A Chinese team defeats the Netherlands in the finals of the middle-weight non-humanoid league, while another lost in the final of the small humanoid class to a team from Japan. (DutchNews) (BBC)

Health and medicine

Scientists, led by study leader Jeff Taubenberger, at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), expose mice to non-infectious H proteins (hemagglutinins; 18 types known): one of two protein classes, along with N proteins (neuraminidases; 9 types known), that line influenza (flu) viruses. They then later exposed the mice to species of the flu they hadn’t experienced before, and the mice were protected. This approach toward finding a new universal flu vaccine works better than the current approach of using live or weakened infectious whole flu strains, especially because of the virus’s capability to mutate successfully easily, such as when a person is infected with more than one strain of it at a time. Human trials could start in 2016. (NIAID)

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July 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

Iran city hits suffocating heat index of 165 degrees, near world record –
Wherever you live or happen to travel to, never complain about the heat and humidity again. In the city of Bandar Mahshahr (population of about 110,000 as of 2010), the air felt like a searing 165 degrees (74 Celsius) today factoring in the humidity.
Although there are no official records of heat indices, this is second highest level we have ever seen reported. To achieve today’s astronomical heat index level of 165, Bandar Mahshahr’s actual air temperature registered 115 degrees (46 Celsius) with an astonishing dew point temperature of 90 (32 Celsius). [Washington Post]

Nuns lose court bid to block convent sale to Katy Perry –
Judge says California nuns’ attempt to sell the $15 million property to a restaurateur, instead of the pop star, is “invalid”. A pair of nuns have suffered a major setback in their legal battle to stop the sale of their convent to pop star Katy Perry. Sisters Rita Callanan, 77, and Catherine Rose Holzman, 86, dressed in blue habits, looked disappointed as the ruling was given in the very temporal surroundings of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. The bespectacled Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary had objected to a plan by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, to sell the eight-acre property to Miss Perry, purveyor of risque hits like I Kissed A Girl. [Daily Telegraph]See July 1 2015
Katy Perry

MH370 search: key questions as plane debris ‘found’ –
A metallic object described as six to nine feet long and three feet wide was found on a beach on the east coast of Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean. The object had the code number “BB670” on it. Locals said the object had shells on it and appeared to have been in the water for some time. There are two main reasons investigators are confident the part comes from the missing MH370 aircraft. First, aviation experts say the object appears to be from a Boeing 777 – and no other such aircraft is believed to have gone missing in the region. If the object is from MH370, it will mark the first sign of the Boeing 777 since it disappeared on March 8 2014. But such confirmation will come as difficult news for the families of the 239 passengers who were on aboard. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters Rockin1000 Official Video
1000 musicians play Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters to ask Dave Grohl to come and play in Cesena, Italy

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#FriendshipDay	#FriendshipDay	#FriendshipDay
2	#ماذا_تقول_لمن_…	#NationalCheesecakeDay	#NewHarryPotterBooks
3	#NewHarryPotterBooks	#NewHarryPotterBooks	#NationalCheesecakeDay
4	#NecesitoYQuieroQue	Tink	Stuart Baggs
5	#noconfioenlagenteque	#ICONiacMemories	Amazon Prime
6	#اختصر_وطنك_في_…	Top Gear	Ai Weiwei
7	Learn to Fly	James Woods	#realmusic
8	Pratto	Lizzie McGuire	#swarm
9	Corinthians	Sheldon Richardson	#MH370
10	#UsoOTwitterPq	#ABDC	British Gas

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkey–PKK conflict
- An ambush on a Turkish military convoy in the south-eastern Şırnak Province by PKK militants kills 3 Turkish soldiers. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

A heat wave hits the Middle East with Baghdad recording a top temperature of 50 °C (122 °F) and the Iranian city of Bandar Mahshahr recording a near world record heat index temperature of 67.8 °C (154.0 °F). (Washington Post)
At least 30 people are killed in a landslide that struck villages near Pokhara, Nepal. (Reuters UK)

International relations

A Taiwanese high school student commits suicide by charcoal fumes after a protest against controversial Sinocentric revisions in a curriculum guideline; hundreds storm the education ministry in response. (AFP via Yahoo) (Taipei Times) (BBC) (AP via Yahoo) (Los Angeles Times)
Russia vetoes a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have established an international criminal tribunal to investigate the downing ofMalaysia Airlines Flight 17. (WSJ)

Law and crime

The Israeli Knesset passes a controversial law that legalizes forced-feeding of Palestinian prisoners. (Middle East Eye)
India executes Yakub Memon for his role in the 1993 Bombay bombings. (BBC)

Politics and elections

After days of debate, the Taliban announce Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the successor to Mullah Omar over his son, Yaqoob Omar. (BBC)
Anti-corruption campaign in China:
- Former Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman, General Guo Boxiong, is accused of taking bribes in exchange for the promotion of officers and expelled from the Communist Party of China. (BBC)
Chen Min’er replaces Zhao Kezhi as the Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou province, China. Zhao awaits assignment. (CRI)

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August 7, 2015

Top News Stories –

George Cole, Arthur Daley in Minder, dies at 90 –
Stars of stage and screen have been paying tribute to “immaculate” and “unforgettable” Minder actor George Cole following his death at the age of 90. Cole, whose showbusiness career spanned 70 years, is best remembered for his portrayal of small-time wheeler dealer and crook Arthur Daley in the TV show Minder, alongside his likeable bodyguard Terry McCann, played by Waterman. He died yesterday in hospital with his family at his side after a short illness, it was announced today. [Daily Telegraph]

One Direction number one breaks streaming records –
One Direction have topped the UK singles chart with their new single Drag Me Down. The track broke streaming records, earning the highest first-week streams for a single in the UK with 2.03m plays. Drag Me Down is One Direction’s first single as a foursome since the departure of Zayn Malik. Its release came a surprise to fans who had not been expecting a new single. [BBC Newsbeat]
One Direction in 2013 before Zayn left

North Korea sets up own time zone in rebuke to ‘wicked Japanese imperialists’ –
The hermetic communist state of North Korea is often said to be locked in a Stalinist time warp. But it is now turning the clocks back – by 30 minutes a day – by official decree. The state news agency has announced the creation of a new Pyongyang time zone as a rejection of the legacy of “wicked Japanese imperialists”. North Korea will step back in time by half an hour on Aug 15th – the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese rule at the end of the Second World War. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Uber meets Tinder

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DragMeDownMusicVideo	#StraightOutta	#Compton
2	Spice Girls	#TheWorstPartOfDepressionIs	Spice Girls
3	#GOPDebate	#InternationalBeerDay	#FridayFeeling
4	Aldon Smith	#DragMeDownMusicVideo	#InternationalBeerDay
5	NASA	Aldon Smith	#GOPDebate
6	#JonVoyage	#MyMotherAlwaysToldMe	Jenson Button
7	#TheVoiceChile	#MakeAHorrorMovieHarmless	#ReligiousUpaMovie
8	#BuenViernes	#ReligiousUpaMovie	#DragMeDownMusicVideo
9	#LaVidaEsAburridaSin	James Holmes	Cassper
10	Hayırlı Cumalar	#CameronDallasPhotoShoot	Jonathan King

Other News Stories –

Armed conflict and attacks

Suspected Islamist militants stormed two hotels in central Mali where UN peacekeepers were housed, seizing at least ten hostages and killing three Malian soldiers and a U.N. peacekeeper. (Times of Oman) (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- At least fifteen people are dead and 400 injured when a truck bomb explodes in Kabul. (BBC) (WSJ)
- A bombing outside the Kabul police academy kills at least 20 people with the Taliban claiming responsibility. (AFP via ABC News)
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- Tadmur offensive (July–August 2015), Syrian Civil War
  - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that ISIL has kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, from Al-Qaryatayn in the Homs Governorate. (Reuters) (RFERL)
- Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants execute 19 women in Mosul, Iraq, for refusing to have sex with the group’s fighters. (Tribune) (Daily Caller)

Arts and culture

North Korea will change its time zone to UTC+08:30 on August 15, returning to the time used by the Korean Empireuntil Japanese occupation in 1910. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Taiwan evacuates hundreds of people ahead of Typhoon Soudelor (2015). (Reuters via WA Today)

International relations

Syrian Civil War
- The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution aimed at identifying those responsible for deploying chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria. (Hindustan Times) (VOA)

Law and crime

Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
- A Bangladeshi blogger known for his atheist views has been hacked to death by a gang armed with machetes, the fourth such incident this year, in the capital Dhaka, Bangla. (BBC) (The Telegraph) (The Hindu)
The jury in the penalty phase of the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes reaches a verdict to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (Reuters) (AP) (WABC)

Sports

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup
- FIBA announces that China will host the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. China was chosen over the Philippines, the only other candidate nation, for the hosting rights of the tournament. (The Japan Times)

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August 9, 2015

Top News Stories –

Australia proposes limiting Vegemite sales to prevent alcohol abuse –
Australia’s government says Vegemite sales should be limited in some communities to prevent the yeast-based spread being used to make home-made alcohol. Nigel Scullion, the indigenous affairs minister, said the spread – which is considered something of a national culinary staple – was a “precursor to misery” in communities suffering from alcohol abuse. He said he was not proposing a ban but wanted to restrict excessive sales of high-yeast products such as Vegemite in “dry” communities – typically remote Aboriginal townships where alcohol sales are banned. Vegemite, from the same family of spreads as Marmite, has been produced in Australia since 1923 and its advertising jingles have sometimes been said to be more widely known than the national anthem. [Daily Telegraph]

A woman’s bra wire saves her from bullet in German hunting accident –
A woman’s bra wire has saved her life after a bullet hit her during a hunting accident in north-eastern Germany. The tourist was cycling through woods with her husband in the Mecklenberg-Western Pomerania area of the country. According to newspaper the Gadebusch-Rehnaer Zeitung, the pair had inadvertently strayed into the middle of a boar hunt while crossing a field. The woman said she felt a pain in her chest, which turned out to be a bullet ricocheting off her bra underwire. She was taken to a doctor in nearby Gadebusch by a passing motorist and treated for severe bruising on her chest plus a small blood clot. The gun and ammunition from the hunt were also impounded and police with sniffer dogs and metal detectors searched the area. [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

THE WILD from LIEBER FILMS on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#1DFanArmyVoteAttack	#1DFanArmyVoteAttack	#UFCNashville
2	#رشيدي_يتزوج_ح�…	#FergusonTaughtMe	Reece Oxford
3	#Elecciones2015	Frank Gifford	#WomensDay
4	#احلي_مافي_الس�…	#IWillGoToHellBecause	#OTRABaltimore
5	#QuieroAhoraMismo	Lizzie McGuire	Stoke
6	#OTRABaltimore	#MikeBrown	#MOTD
7	#ConRockTeDigoQue	#DietAMovie	Clause IV
8	Pais	Arsenal	Arsenal
9	Harry Louis	#1MonthSinceOTRASanDiego	Coutinho
10	Tini NUESTRO MUNDO Stoessel	Magcon	Charlie Adam

Other News Stories –

Arts and culture

Japan commemorates the 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- At least 22 people are dead or missing in China and millions are without power after Typhoon Soudelor hit the nation yesterday. (USA Today)

Law and crime

An arrest warrant has been issued for the cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Suleiman Hilal Al-Assad, who is accused of shooting and killing Colonel Hassan Al-Sheikh of the Syrian Armed Forces at what can be described as a traffic dispute. (The News Hub) (France 24)
Shooting of Michael Brown
- Tyrone Harris, Jr is shot in Ferguson, Missouri one year after the death of Michael Brown after allegedly firing shots at police. He is in a critical condition.(St Louis Post-Dispatch)

Politics and elections

The Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi calls for abolishing the positions of Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister and says he is opening graft investigations. The previous vice president Tariq al-Hashimi was sentenced to death in absentia over political murders. (Bloomberg)

Sports

NFL player and sportscaster Frank Gifford dies at the age of 84. (NBC)

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August 12, 2015

Top News Stories –

China blasts: Shipment explodes in Tianjin port –
Massive explosions have hit China’s northern port city of Tianjin, reportedly injuring many people. According to Chinese state media, the blasts occurred when a shipment of explosives blew up at about 23:30 (16:30 GMT). Pictures and video shared on social media showed flames lighting up the sky and damage to nearby buildings. Latest reports in state media suggest that hundreds of people have been taken to hospital. The first explosion was followed by another 30 seconds later. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Twitter takes the chains off Direct Messages by removing 140-character limit –
Twitter is fairly conspicuous by its absence among the big messaging players. The service has allowed its users to send private messages back and forth for years, but for a long time, the feature seemed like an afterthought, with bugs such as unreliable notifications. This is slowly changing. On Wednesday, Twitter finally removed a 140-character limit on Direct Messages (DMs), meaning users can send up to 10,000 characters (which roughly allows space for 2,000 words). Sachin Agarwal, Twitter’s DM product manager, said this had been one of Twitter users’ most commonly-requested features. [Daily Telegraph]

RIP to LOL – the history of laughing out loud –
A Facebook study suggests that people are choosing to use “haha” and emojis over “LOL” to express laughter. The research claims more than half (51.4%) opt for “haha”, while just 1.9% are LOLers, although it didn’t look at direct messages. LOL was added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 2011, but the origin of the phrase can be traced back to the 1980s. The Facebook study suggests a third of people use emojis for laughter. [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

直击天津滨海新区爆炸瞬间现场响声震天

Massive explosions have hit China’s northern port city of Tianjin

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SonrioCuando	#WorldElephantDay	#WorldElephantDay
2	#NecesitariaYaMismo	The Artist	#YouthDay
3	#AlDubMaybeThisTime	Jimmy Carter	#CeCeIsA
4	#WorldElephantDay	#MyMemoirWouldBeCalled	#MyMemoirWouldBeCalled
5	바퀴벌레	#ShoutOutDay	Simon Danczuk
6	#MasterChefBR	Hump Day	#BiscuitsInAMovie
7	#الهلال_النصر	#SoundsGoodFeelsGood	The Artist
8	#FAceToFace	#YouthDay	#FAceToFace
9	#ايش_بتسمي_اول_…	Rex Ryan	Paulo Wanchope
10	鳩山元首相	The Hateful Eight	#Inglorious12th

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- At least 40 people are killed and more than 180 wounded in artillery strikes in Damascus during a visit by the Foreign Minister of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif. (The News Hub)

Arts and culture

New Zealand flag debate
- A government appointed panel chooses 40 finalist flag designs out of more than 10,000 submitted. (Miami Herald) (New York Post)

Business and economy

Pearson PLC agrees to sell its share in the Economist Group to Exor controlled by the Agnelli family for £469m. (BBC)
2015 Chinese stock market crash
- The People’s Republic of China devalues the yuan (Renminbi) by 1.62 per cent after devaluing by 1.92 per cent yesterday. This comes in the wake of a 30% drop of Chinese stocks last month. (BBC)(USA Today) (The Australian)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Tianjin explosion
- A massive explosion in the Chinese city of Tianjin results in at least 17 deaths, 11 people seriously injured and hundreds of people being hospitalised. (BBC)(NBC News) (CCTV)
- A CNN reporter is interrupted from reporting by upset friends and relatives of victims outside a Tianjin hospital. (CNN)
A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashes while landing on a U.S. Navy cargo vessel near the Japanese island of Okinawa, with seven people injured. (AP, via MSN)
The death toll from a heat wave in Egypt this week rises to 60. (AP)

Law and crime

Kasur child sexual abuse scandal
- In a two years period, 280 to 300 children have been sexually abused and filmed doing forced sex acts in Pakistan by a gang consisting of 20 to 25 culprits. (CNN) (Anadolu Agency) (BBC)

Politics and elections

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, aged 90, announces that recent liver surgery revealed that he is suffering from an as-yet unspecified form of cancer which has spread to other parts of his body. (Reuters, via MSN)
North Korea‘s vice premier Choe Yong-gon is believed to have been executed by firing squad this year for voicing frustration at the policies of leader Kim Jong-Un. (Reuters) (AFP)
A South Korean man is seriously injured after setting himself on fire during a protest against Japan‘s use of South Korean women as sex slaves during World War II. (New York Times)
Desi Bouterse is sworn in for a second term as President of Suriname. (AP via StarTribune)

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August 13, 2015

Top News Stories –

Nigerian granted divorce over wife’s late meals –
A Nigerian court has recently granted a 57-year-old man a divorce on the premise that his wife was bringing him his meals too late at night, local media reported on Thursday. Olufade Adeyoka recently explained to a courtroom in Lagos that he was fed up, that his wife of 25 years, Olusola, continued to serve him his meals late. In an interview with the Nigerian newspaper ‘Vanguard’ Adeyoka claimed that his wife “had failed in her matrimonial obligations”. This is thought to be the first time a legal divorce has been granted due to problems regarding domestic mealtime arrangements, however Nigeria has seen many abnormal divorce cases granted. [Daily Telegraph]

Pants ‘for superheroes’: Underwear that protects sperm count by blocking smartphone radiation –
Smart underwear designed to protect male fertility from radiation emitted by smartphones and laptops has been unveiled by a British scientist. Described by Sir Richard Branson as “underpants for superheroes”, the Wireless Armour underwear contains a mesh of pure silver woven into the fabric. It shields against 99.9 per cent of electromagnetic radiation, which is emitted from devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, and has been linked to fertility problems by scientists. [Daily Telegraph]
Wireless Armour underwear

Modern Family’s Ariel Winter has had a breast reduction –
Modern Family star Ariel Winter has revealed she has undergone breast reduction surgery. The 17-year-old said she made the decision after suffering with back and neck pain as a result of her 32F cups. “It’s amazing to finally feel right,” she told Glamour magazine. The actress, who plays young teenager Alex Dunphy in the TV series, had the surgery in June and reduced the size of her chest to a 34D. [BBC Newsbeat]
Ariel Winter

Video of the Day –

Beautiful Footage: Chameleons Are Amazing

List of the Day –

Chameleon scientific data [from Wikipedia]

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Iguania
Infraorder:	Acrodonta
Family:	Chamaeleonidae
Genera
Brookesiinae Brookesia Palleon Chamaeleoninae Archaius Bradypodion Calumma Chamaeleo Furcifer Kinyongia Nadzikambia Rieppeleon Rhampholeon Trioceros

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DirectionersFuneral	#lefthandersday	#lefthandersday
2	#lefthandersday	#FlyAway	#FlyAway
3	Louis e Briana	#AdviceForStudentsThisYear	#Alevelresults
4	Fidel Castro	#ThingsNotToBringToAFuneral	#UniAdvice
5	#FlyAway	#meteorshower	#ThingsNotToBringToAFuneral
6	Sesame Street	Sesame Street	#meteorshower
7	Omar Bravo	#HipHopMovies	Scott Allan
8	#DeChiquitoCreia	Al Gore	UCAS
9	#NoEstariaMal	#CancelWendyWilliamsShow	#1xtraProm
10	Marian	#DirectionersFuneral	University

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 Baghdad market truck bomb, Iraq War (2014–present)
- At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.(Reuters) (Daily Mail)
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Rojava Revolution
- The United States believes that ISIL has likely used a sulfur mustard agent against Kurdish forces in Iraq earlier this week. (Wall Street Journal)

Business and economy

The government-owned New Zealand coal-mining company Solid Energy goes into temporary voluntary administration, asking creditors to freeze most of its debt. (Radio New Zealand)
2015 Chinese stock market crash
- The People’s Republic of China further devalues the yuan (Renminbi) by 1 per cent after two previous devaluings. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Tianjin explosion
- The death toll from the 2015 Tianjin explosion rises to 50. (AP)
An unspecified-type Egyptian military aircraft crashes due to a ‘technical failure’ near the Libyan border killing four crew members and injuring two others. (ABC via AP)

Law and crime

Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority
- Swedish prosecutors drop some charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as the statute of limitations expire but will continue to investigate rape claims. (Sky News)

Politics and elections

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri pledges allegiance to the new Taliban chief Akhter Mansour in an audio message posted online. (BBC) (Reuters)

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August 17, 2015

Top News Stories –

Cannes watch thief arrested after taunting police with pictures of luxury life on the run –
A gangster who stole designer watches worth €1.7 million (£1.2 million) from a Cannes jewellers and taunted police for two years with pictures of himself enjoying a luxurious lifestyle in Morocco has been arrested. NabiI Ibelati, 29, who has French and Moroccan nationality, had been on the run since July 2013, when he burst into Kronometry jewellers on the Cannes “croisette” in broad daylight with a pistol and grenade rifle, tied up staff and made off with 100 luxury watches. An accomplice and a brother of Ibelati were arrested six months later in France, but Ibelati fled to Morocco, posting regular Facebook pictures that showed him living the high life: relaxing in an infinity pool, enjoying a formal dinner and riding a camel in the desert. Moroccan authorities arrested Ibelati on Saturday, after secretly recording members of his entourage discussing his movements. [Daily Telegraph]

The songs China doesn’t want you to hear –
In China, the government has banned a list of 120 songs from the internet, including a string of karaoke favourites. It says the songs “trumpet obscenity, violence, crime or harm social morality”, and has ordered them to be removed from websites. Songs with titles like I Love Taiwanese Girls, Fart, Beijing Hooligans and Don’t Want to Go to School have all been blacklisted. [BBC Trending]

Video of the Day –

Introducing Project Sunroof – Google

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#FelizLunes	#MondayMotivation	#mondaymotivation
2	#TresCosasQueMeHacenFeliz	Stevie Wonder	#TheresNothingWrongWith
3	#TeenChoiceAwards	Bangkok	#TeenChoiceAwards
4	#اجمل_اسم_بنت	#blackcatappreciationday	#bloggerblackmail
5	#17Ağustos1999	#HappyBirthdayDonnie	TCAs
6	#RI70	#InThe90sWeAsked	Sergio Ramos
7	Sergio Ramos	#earthquake	Bangkok
8	コンスタンティン	Jeff Bezos	#ProudOfJanoskians
9	FÃ DA PITTY É VIADO OU S…	#HillaryAMovie	David Miliband
10	Bangkok	#ThingsJesusNeverSaid	#blackcatappreciationday

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 Attock bombing
- The U.S. offers to assist Pakistan with its investigation into the suicide bombing attack on Sunday that killed at least 19 people, including Shuja Khanzada, the interior minister of the Punjab Province. (Daily Pakistan)
2015 Ratchaprasong bombing
- A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others. No one has claimed responsibility. Thai Society president Songvut Manoonpong said parties opposing the Thai military government were likely responsible. (Sky News) (Reuters) (Bangkok Post) (NZ Herald) (Al Jazeera English Online)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Tianjin explosions
- Protesters in Tianjin demand answers and compensation from the government. (Radio New Zealand Online) (Al Jazeera English Online) (BBC)
A heat wave affecting the Middle East causes almost 100 deaths in Egypt. (Al Jazeera English Online)
Trigana Air Service Flight 257
- Indonesian authorities reveal that the crashed plane was transporting $US470,000 in cash for the poor. (The Telegraph)

International relations

South Korea and the United States commence a joint military exercise despite threats from North Korea. (AFP via Yahoo News)
The United Arab Emirates approves plans for the construction of the first Hindu temple in that country, after a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Al Jazeera English Online)
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a statement backing intensive talks on key issues aimed at restoring peace in Syria. (AP via SFGate)

Law and crime

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which announced an extensive computer data breach in May 2015, has revealed that the breach is much deeper and more serious than previously thought, exposing an additional 220,000 individuals. The thieves had infiltrated a now-deactivated online system called “Get Transcript.” (AP, via MSN) (USA Today)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approves a controversial anti-terrorism law. Proponents say it will help fight terrorism, and opponents say the legislation will jeopardize civil rights including freedom of the press. (Al Jazeera English Online) (BBC)
A former police officer is charged with second degree murder, in connection with the on-duty shooting death of John Geer in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S., in August 2013. (NBC Washington)
American actor Emile Hirsch is jailed for 15 days for an assault on a Paramount Pictures executive at the Sundance Resort in Utah. (Deadline)

Medicine and health

Experiments at the the U.S. Department of Energy‘s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made major progress in mapping brain signalling processes at an atomic level, in this case, the SNAREcomplex (neuronal SNAREs and synaptotagmin-1), which influences the control and release of neurotransmitters.(Science Daily)

Politics and elections

Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2015
- Voters in Sri Lanka go to the polls for a general election with the ruling United National Party holding on to power.. (BBC) (Al Jazeera English Online), (AFP via Yahoo! News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 23, 2015

Top News Stories –

Usain Bolt beats Justin Gatlin to win world 100m title –
Usain Bolt produced perhaps his greatest performance of all as he put a troubled build-up behind him to beat two-time doper and clear favourite Justin Gatlin to retain his world 100m title. The controversial Gatlin came into the final on a 28-race unbeaten run and apparently relishing his role as the sport’s bad guy. But at the same Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing where Bolt announced himself to the world with two Olympic golds and two world records in 2008, the Jamaican superstar came past a faltering Gatlin at the death to snatch victory by one hundredth of a second. Bolt’s 9.79 seconds was more than two tenths off his world record, but this was a night for athletics to celebrate victories rather than times. [BBC] See List of the Day
Usain Bolt

Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’ in England: It’s a Strange World, After All –
WESTON-SUPER-MARE, England — Rain pelted down for much of Sunday afternoon on this drooping beachside resort town where “Dismaland,” the gloomy anti-Disneyland created by the artist Banksy, opened this weekend. “Dismaland,” a satirical take on a theme park, features grumpy guards, funereal theme park games and art by about 60 artists — including Banksy, Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer. The exhibition had a “locals” day on Friday and opened to the public on Saturday; it runs through late September. The exhibition came largely as a surprise: Members of the British news media had spotted construction at the exhibition site — the abandoned grounds of a former family swimming pool — early last week, and had begun to speculate on what was taking place there. The exhibition includes new and old artwork by Banksy, including a pool with mobile boats full of figurine immigrants in what apparently is the English Channel, and a mural-style work in the his signature silhouette style, which shows a fat cat in a suit gorging himself while a gaunt woman with children stands across from him. [NY Times]
Logo_of_Dismaland

Met Office loses multi-million pound BBC weather contract –
The Met Office has lost its lucrative weather forecasting contract with the BBC after nearly a century of providing the service. Negotiations to renew the deal hit a dead end and a new firm is expected to take over next year. The BBC said it was legally required to open up the contract to outside competition and secure the best value for money for licence fee payers. Dutch and New Zealand firms are said to be in the running for the contract, which is believed to make up a sizeable share of the £32.5 million a year the Met Office receives from commercial organisations, according to the Mail on Sunday. [Daily Telegraph] See Top Twitter Trends

Mel Gibson accused of pushing female photographer –
Oscar-winning actor Mel Gibson has been accused of pushing a female photographer in Sydney. The Daily Telegraph’s Kristi Miller told Australian media she was pushed and verbally abused while taking pictures of Gibson and his girlfriend. She alleges Gibson’s tirade ended when his partner, 24-year-old US equestrian vaulter Rosalind Ross, intervened. “I thought he was going to punch me in the face,” Ms Miller said. “He was spitting in my face as he was yelling.” Police confirmed they are investigating reports a female photographer was pushed outside a cinema on Sunday night. [BBC] Gibson swore at a TV journalist in February 2010.
Mel Gibson

Video of the Day –

Subway Love

Subway Love from Max Stossel on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Usain Bolt international competition record

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2002	World Junior Championships	Kingston, Jamaica	1st	200 metres	20.61
			2nd	4×100 metres relay	39.15 NJR
			2nd	4×400 metres relay	3:04.06 NJR
2003	World Youth Championships	Sherbrooke, Canada	1st	200 metres	20.40
2003	Pan American Junior Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados	1st	200 metres	20.13 WYB
2003	Pan American Junior Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados	2nd	4×100 metres relay	39.40
2004	CARIFTA Games	Hamilton, Bermuda	1st	200 metres	19.93 WJR
2005	Central American and Caribbean Championships	Nassau, Bahamas	1st	200 metres	20.03
2006	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	200 metres	20.10
2006	IAAF World Cup	Athens, Greece	2nd	200 metres	19.96
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	2nd	200 metres	19.91
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	2nd	4×100 metres relay	37.89
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	100 metres	9.69 WR OR
			1st	200 metres	19.30 WR OR
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.10 WR OR
2009	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	1st	100 metres	9.58 WR
			1st	200 metres	19.19 WR
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.31 CR
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	DSQ^[226]	100 metres	—
			1st	200 metres	19.40 WL
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.04 WR
2012	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	1st	100 metres	9.63 OR
			1st	200 metres	19.32
			1st	4×100 metres relay	36.84 WR
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	1st	100 metres	9.77
			1st	200 metres	19.66
			1st	4×100 metres relay	37.36
2014	Commonwealth Games	Glasgow, Scotland	1st	4×100 metres relay	37.58 GR
2015	World Relay Championships	Nassau, Bahamas	2nd	4×100 metres relay	37.68
2015	World Championships	Beijing, China	1st	100 metres	9.79

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#WhyILoveLiam	#WhyILoveLiam	Met Office
2	#sextapelarry	Jordy Nelson	#NXTTakeOver
3	#HepimizYarbayMehmetAlkanız	#sextapelarry	#MakeSomeonesDayIn3Words
4	#WeMissYourVoiceZayn	Cris Carter	#MOTD
5	BeliebersVoteForBieber	#HugoAwards	#HugoAwards
6	#NoFuisteADisney	White Horse	Bolt
7	#NXTTakeOver	Matt LeBlanc	Katarina Johnson-Thompson
8	#PSYUnangHalik	#SummerSlam	West Brom
9	#HoneymoonTourManila	Fernando Rodney	Shutter Island
10	#حدثني_عن_الحب_…	#FearTheWalkingDead	#BelgianGP

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Al-Qaeda militants take over parts of the strategic southern Yemeni port city of Aden. The militants reportedly raised their black flag above the city’s port and government buildings. (Reuters)
- A Saudi general is killed in cross-border fire from Yemen making him the highest-ranking officer to be killed in border attacks by Houthi militants since March. (Yahoo via AFP)
- A British hostage in Yemen is freed following a United Arab Emirates military intelligence operation. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is reported to have blown up the ancient Baalshamin temple in Palmyra, Syria. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

The death toll from floods in the Indian state of Assam rises to seven, with 650,000 people displaced. (Hindustan Times)
2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Goni leaves the Phillipines with 15 dead and 12 people missing. (AP)
The number of fatalities in the 2015 Shoreham Airshow crash is “highly likely” to have risen to 11. (BBC)

International relations

Britain and Iran reopen embassies in each others’ capitals that had been closed after Iranian protesters stormed the British embassy on November 29, 2011. (Reuters)
North and South Korea resume talks in the border village of Panmunjon in efforts to defuse recent tensions. (AP)

Law and crime

Malaysia finds the bodies of more than 20 people believed to be victims of human trafficking in mass graves buried near the border with Thailand. (Reuters via The Guardian)
Two men from Iowa are arrested in Saugus, Massachusetts after heavy firearms are discovered in their hotel room. The two had made threats on social media targeting the 2015 Pokemon Video Game World Championships that are being held in Boston. (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 26, 2015

Top News Stories –

Ex-Broadcaster Kills 2 on Air in Virginia; Takes Own Life –
He was a fired television reporter with a history of conflicts at work and rage apparently stoked by racial grievances. And when he sought revenge on Wednesday, gunning down two former colleagues, he used the tools of social media to ensure that his crime was broadcast live, recorded from multiple angles and posted online. Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, identified by the authorities as the gunman, waited until Alison Parker and Adam Ward, young journalists at WDBJ in Roanoke, were on air, then killed them while recording on his own video camera. Mr. Flanagan shot himself in the head hours later, the authorities said, but as the chase for him was on, he wrote about the shooting on Twitter, uploaded his video to Facebook and sent a manifesto to ABC News that spoke admiringly of mass killers and said that as a black, gay man he had faced discrimination and sexual harassment. [NY Times]
Alison Parker and Adam Ward

Theater shooter Holmes gets 12 life sentences, plus 3,318 years –
A Colorado judge formally sentenced James Eagan Holmes to multiple life terms plus thousands of years in prison for the Aurora movie theater massacre that killed 12 and wounded 70. Holmes, a 27-year-old former grad student, received one life term for each person he killed, plus 3,318 years for the attempted murders of those he wounded and for rigging his apartment with explosives. He is not eligible for parole. Prosecutor George Brauchler said he believed the sentence was the fourth longest in U.S. history. He described the judge’s command to promptly remove Holmes from the courtroom as “the right exclamation point” to bring a painful, difficult trial to a close. [CNN]

James_Holmes_2012

Burger King is trying to make the McWhopper happen –
Lovers of fast food burgers are in for a treat: why choose between the Big Mac and the Whopper when you can have both in one mouthful and save the world at the same time? Burger King has approached McDonald’s about combining their star burgers for one day only, in a bid to raise awareness of Peace Day, the day of global unity recognised by the United Nations held annually on September 21. The McWhopper would be six parts Big Mac (top bun, all-beef patty, cheese, lettuce, special sauce and middle bun) and six parts Whopper (tomato, onion, ketchup, pickles, flame-grilled patty and bottom bun). The limited edition burger would be available in a co-branded pop-up restaurant in Atlanta, the mid-way point between McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago and Burger King HQ in Miami. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Burger King | McWhopper Proposal

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#5monthswithoutzayn	#SolveMyProblemsIn4Words	#ask5sos
2	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words
3	#Tucumanazo	Vick	#charitytuesday
4	#فتاه_تغتصب_شاب	#5monthswithoutzayn	House of Fools
5	#NuncaMePasoEsoDe	Curt Schilling	#1YearOfMyEverything
6	BeliebersVoteHottest	Aaliyah	#5monthswithoutzayn
7	#SolveMyProblemsIn4Words	#ask5sos	#TravelTuesday
8	LANA EU TE AMO	#BornToRun	Colin Fry
9	#FelizMartes	You Oughta Know	Harvey Proctor
10	NCAE	Jorge Ramos	Greg Rutherford

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Two NATO soldiers are shot dead by two men in Afghan military uniforms. (AFP via France24)
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- ISIL has destroyed two historic Muslim shrines in Palmyra. (CNN)

Arts and culture

The smaller of mother Mei Xiang’s two giant panda cubs born on Saturday at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. dies. (Smithsonian)

Disasters and accidents

A Swedish rescue crew finds 51 dead migrants in the hold of a boat off the coast of Libya during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea that has saved 439 other people. In addition, three women are found dead in another migrant boat and another corpse is found during ten rescue operations on Wednesday that have saved around 3,000 people, according to the Italian coast guard. (Reuters) (AP via Columbus Republic)

Law and crime

Anti-corruption campaign in China, 2015 Tianjin explosions
- The People’s Republic of China sacks its workplace safety chief Yang Dongliang for alleged corruption following an investigation triggered by the Tianjin explosions. (Reuters)
Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward
- A U.S. television reporter and her cameraman, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, are shot dead during a live broadcast in Moneta, Virginia; the woman they were interviewing, Vicki Gardner, is wounded. The alleged shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II, later uploads a video of the murder and commits suicide. (WTKR)
2012 Aurora shooting
- James Eagan Holmes is formally sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years for the murder of 12 people and injury of 70 others at a Century movie theatre in the U.S. city of Aurora, Colorado. (AP via US News and World Report) (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

Facebook sets user record as more than 1bn people log on in single day –
Facebook has revealed that more than 1bn people used the site on Monday – the first time the social network has hit the milestone. Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the company in 2004 while studying at Harvard, said he felt “proud” that one-in-seven people on Earth logged on to the website during the day. The 31-year-old wrote in a post on Facebook:

Mark Zukerberg tweet
Although Mr Zuckerberg did not specify what had caused the rise in the number of users, the website has consistently attracted more followers. Last month Mr Zuckerberg revealed Facebook had 1.49bn monthly active users, up 13pc from a year earlier. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

LEVEL from joe pease on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The top ten most unexpected words added to the online Oxford dictionary [according to the Daily Telegraph]
1. manspreading (noun): the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seat

2. awesomesauce (adjective): extremely good; excellent

3. bants (noun): playfully teasing or mocking remarks exchanged with another person or group; banter

4. fat-shame (verb): cause (someone judged to be fat or overweight) to feel humiliated by making mocking or critical comments about their size

5. Brexit (noun): a term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union

6. bruh (noun): a male friend (often used as a form of address)

7. cakeage (noun): a charge made by a restaurant for serving a cake they have not supplied themselves

8. fatberg (noun): a very large mass of solid waste in a sewerage system, consisting especially of congealed fat and personal hygiene products that have been flushed down toilets

9. Grexit (noun): a term for the potential withdrawal of Greece from the eurozone (the economic region formed by those countries in the European Union that use the euro as their national currency)

10. hangry (adjective): bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#1dfansaregorgeous	#NationalBurgerDay	#1dfansaregorgeous
2	Smelly Cat	#MakeSexAwkwardIn5Words	#MakeSexAwkwardIn5Words
3	#bieberisback	Smelly Cat	#NationalBurgerDay
4	#MeEncantaQue	#jetblackheart	#NameTheNextBoyBand
5	#1DayUntilWhatDoYouMean	#1dfansaregorgeous	#bieberisback
6	#jetblackheart	Darryl Dawkins	#jetblackheart
7	Derrick Rose	#BoringComicBookPlots	Smelly Cat
8	#D5ComingSoon	Usain Bolt	Spitman
9	#لو_قالوا_اختا�…	#NameTheNextBoyBand	#UCLdraw
10	コミュニケーショ��…	#ShesKindaHotEP	Kevin Nolan

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraq War (2014–present)
- Two generals of the Iraqi Army and 3 soldiers are killed and 10 wounded when an Islamic State suicide bomber detonates in northern Ramadi. (Los Angeles Times)
Gaza–Israel conflict
- In retaliation to a rocket attack on Southern Israel, Israel Defence Forces destroy a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility located within the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
The Government of India deploys the Army to the state of Gujarat after two days of caste-related violence results in seven deaths. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
War in Donbass
- Seven Ukraine servicemen have died and 13 were wounded in skirmishes with pro-Russian separatists in the past day. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Walmart will stop selling the AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles allegedly because of sluggish customer demand. (Reuters)
Panasonic will stop making lithium-ion batteries for phones and cameras in Beijing, China, with a cut of 1,300 jobs. The company will instead refocus on higher-margin products such as electric car batteries. (Reuters)
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruling in the Browning-Ferris case uses an expanded definition of joint employer when determining if a parent company shares responsibility for workers hired by a subcontractor or franchisee. Democratic appointees on the panel split 3-2 with Republicans on this decision that upended the traditional arms-length relationship that had been in place since 1984. The Republican-controlled US Congress responded to arguments from businesses such as the International Franchise Association by adding another NLRB-related rider to the budget to block implementation of this latest ruling. Browning-Ferris can appeal the decision to a federal appeals court. The ruling could affect current unionization and pay efforts at McDonald’s franchises. (Wall Street Journal) (International Business Times), (Forbes) (Chicago Tribune) (Washington Post)
Oilfield services provider Schlumberger agrees to acquire construction company Cameron International in a $12.71 billion deal. (AP via Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- Two boats carrying migrants capsize off of the coast of Zuwarah, Libya, with hundreds feared dead. (BBC)
- Austrian police discover as many as 50 dead refugees in a truck. (Reuters)
A sinkhole in China swallows five people. (AP)
2015 Atlantic hurricane season
- Four people are killed on the Caribbean island of Dominica as a result of floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Erika. (WRAL)

Law and crime

David H. Murdock, the CEO and chairman of Dole Food Company, along with a fellow confidant, are ordered to pay $148 million for misleading directors and shareholders. (AP via Washington Post)

Politics and elections

Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, the head of the Court of Cassation, is appointed as interim Prime Minister of Greece for the duration of the upcoming election. She is the first woman to hold the post. (AP via Roanoke)
Thousands of protesters joined a Guatemalan national strike Thursday demanding the resignation of President Otto Pérez Molina for corruption. Five of 13 cabinet ministers have resigned since Friday, and Tuesday, the Supreme Court unanimously approved a motion to impeach the president. (Bloomberg) (Bayou Buzz) (The Weather Space)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

September 10, 2015

Top News Stories –

New human-like species discovered in S Africa –

Scientists have discovered a new human-like species in a burial chamber deep in a cave system in South Africa. The discovery of 15 partial skeletons is the largest single discovery of its type in Africa. The researchers claim that the discovery will change ideas about our human ancestors. The studies which have been published in the journal Elife also indicate that these individuals were capable of ritual behaviour. The species, which has been named naledi, has been classified in the grouping, or genus,Homo, to which modern humans belong. [BBC] See List of the Day

Pope Francis emojis launched for US visit –
Pope Francis draws huge crowds wherever he goes and now his fans can share their admiration with papal emojis. A new keyboard app is being released to mark the Pope’s upcoming visit to America. You can have the Pope balancing a basketball or riding a taxi (although we suspect he’d prefer his Popemobile). They’re among 52 emojis and 14 GIFs in the app from Swyft Media, the company which created the first ginger emojis.
Pope emojis by Swyft Media

Giant Lenin ‘head’ unearthed 24 years after burial in Berlin –
The giant head of a statue of Russian revolutionary Lenin has been unearthed, 24 years after it was buried in a German forest. Workers dug up the granite structure from woodland outside Berlin, following a campaign by historians. The head was once part of a 19m (62ft) monument to the communist leader, which towered over the east of the city. It was dismantled in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the pieces were buried in a secluded forest. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

iPhone 6s – The Only Thing That’s Changed Is…

List of the Day –

Comparative table of *Homo* species
Species	Temporal range Mya	Habitat	Adult height	Adult mass	Cranial capacity (cm³)	Fossil record	Discovery / publication of name
H. habilis	2.1 – 1.5^[136]	Africa	150 cm (4 ft 11 in)	33–55 kg (73–121 lb)	510–660	Many	1960/1964
H. erectus	1.9 – 0.07^[137]	Africa, Eurasia (Java, China, India, Caucasus)	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)	60 kg (130 lb)	850 (early) – 1,100 (late)	Many^[138]	1891/1892
H. rudolfensis membership in Homo uncertain	1.9	Kenya			700	2 sites	1972/1986
H. gautengensis also classified as H. habilis	1.9 – 0.6	South Africa	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)			3 individuals^[139]	2010/2010
H. ergaster also classified as H. erectus	1.8 – 1.3^[140]	Eastern and Southern Africa			700–850	Many	1975
H. antecessor also classified as H. heidelbergensis	1.2 – 0.8	Spain	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	1,000	2 sites	1997
H. cepranensis a single fossil, possibly H. erectus	0.9 – 0.35	Italy			1,000	1 skull cap	1994/2003
H. heidelbergensis	0.6 – 0.35^[141]	Europe, Africa, China	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)	90 kg (200 lb)	1,100–1,400	Many	1908
H. neanderthalensis possibly a subspecies of H. sapiens	0.35 – 0.04^[142]	Europe, Western Asia	170 cm (5 ft 7 in)	55–70 kg (121–154 lb) (heavily built)	1,200–1,900	Many	(1829)/1864
H. rhodesiensis also classified as H. heidelbergensis	0.3 – 0.12	Zambia			1,300	Very few	1921
H. tsaichangensis possibly H. erectus	0.25 – 0.2	Taiwan				1 individual	pre-2008/2015
H. sapiens (modern humans)	0.2^[143] – present	Worldwide	150 – 190 cm (4 ft 7 in – 6 ft 3 in)	50–100 kg (110–220 lb)	950–1,800	(extant)	—/1758
H. floresiensis classification uncertain	0.10 – 0.012	Indonesia	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)	25 kg (55 lb)	400	7 individuals	2003/2004
Denisova hominin possible H. sapiens subspecies or hybrid	0.04	Russia				1 site	2010
Red Deer Cave people possible H. sapiens subspecies or hybrid	0.0145–0.0115	China				Very few	2012

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay	#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
2	#SameOldLove	Pokemon Go	#RenameAFilmLiterally
3	#FelizJueves	#HumanExperienceIn4Words	#charlotteproudman
4	#ChamuyeCuandoDije	Grace Jones	Pokemon Go
5	#CizreUnderAttack	#pitmad	#RejectedAppleProducts
6	#MeCambiaLaCara	#RejectedAppleProducts	Bonang
7	#ZaynWeAreAlwaysHere	#BieberTODAY	#HomoNaledi
8	#SemiIsBack	Bobby Jindal	Jonathan King
9	Palacio de Justicia	Aladdin	iPhone 6s
10	鬼怒川	#FallonTonight	#HumanExperienceIn4Words

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- ISIL attacks a government held air base near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor with dozens of government loyalists and ISIL militants killed. (Reuters)
Operation Martyr Yalçın
- At least 30 people have been killed in the southeastern Turkish city of Cizre following clashes between Turkish security forces and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) supporters. Locals say Cizre has been “under siege” since the militaryimposed a curfew. (BBC)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Air strikes target Houthi political leaders and military bases in Sana’a, Yemen. (Al Jazeera English Online)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- In Japan, tens of thousands are forced to evacuate due to flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Etau. So far, one person is reported as missing. (Radio NZ Online), (AP via US News and World Report), (Al Jazeera English Online),(BBC)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Denmark reopens rail services to Germany after closing rail lines and a motorway in order to stem the flow of migrants on their way to Sweden. (ITV)
- President of the United States Barack Obama directs his administration to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (Washington Post)
Russia–United States relations
- The United States expresses concern about alleged Russian military activities in Syria. (Al Jazeera English Online)
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
- The United States Senate fails to pass a resolution blocking approval of the nuclear agreement with Iran, meaning it will formally be adopted on October 19. (New York Times)

Law and crime

An indigenous Lumad child dies in an evacuation center while the Philippine Senate investigates the alleged September 1 murders of an indigenous Lumad family and the alleged rape of an indigenous Manobo girl by soldiers and militiamen of the Philippine Army. (Rappler), (Mindanao News), (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Azerbaijan jails journalist Khadija Ismayilova after a trial that many believe is politically-motivated. (Al Jazeera English Online)
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for allegedly inciting violence at anti-government rallies. (AP)
A U.S. federal jury awards nearly $17.5 million to five former migrant workers at a South Florida farm in their case of sexual harassment and abuse in their work. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, steps aside after the Democratic Unionist Party fails to get enough support to adjourn the assembly. (BBC)

Science and technology

Homo naledi
- Elife publishes a discovery by scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand announcing a new species of hominid (Homo naledi) in the Rising Star Cave in South Africa. Although the remains have yet to be properly dated, they could be three million years old. (BBC) (Al Jazeera English Online)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 5, 2015

Top News Stories –

Thousands of NASA Apollo mission photos uploaded online –
Thousands of photos taken by Apollo astronauts on moon missions are now online. Around 13,000 scans of images from NASA’s archives, taken across ALL manned Apollo missions between 1961 and 1972 have been given to founder of the Project Apollo Archive Kipp Teague. He told Newsbeat “serious budget cuts” mean the organisation doesn’t have the resourses to publish them. Kipp launched the gallery in 1999, but following questioning about decisions to edit some images in the past, he was prompted to post unedited, high resolution images this time around. [BBC Newsbeat]
Apollo 11 Magazine 40/S – (Color) / EVA; NASA photographs; unprocessed 1800 dpi Hasselblad film scans by Johnson Space Center, circa 2005

Extreme phone pinching is the strangest trend of 2015 –
Back in 2013 there was the Harlem Shake. In 2014, we had the Ice Bucket Challenge. Since then, social media trends have taken a bizarre turn, via some goats. Extreme phone pinching is the latest trend sweeping social media networks, and it involves holding your expensive phone over perilous locations. The only rule appears to be that you can only hold onto your gadget using only your thumb and forefinger. Photos and videos have been flooding the internet of phone users dangling their precious handsets over cliffs, toilets and drains. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Box Clever – Simon’s Cat

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#FelizLunes	#WorldTeachersDay	#WorldTeachersDay
2	#ArgentinaDebate	#mondaymotivation	#mondaymotivation
3	わたしの心	American Apparel	#plasticbags
4	Air France	Grace Lee Boggs	Lord Adonis
5	#MTVFANWARSDirectioners	CC Sabathia	Jeremy Hunt
6	#سعوديه_تفضح_ز�…	#StopGunViolence	Henning Mankell
7	#شي_جميل_بحرف_ا…	#TPP	Ched Evans
8	Henning Mankell	#MyGenitaliaIn4Words	American Apparel
9	#ALDUBSwitch	#WhatYouDontTellCustomers	AstraZeneca
10	Independiente	#MTVFANWARSDirectioners	#ThisIsEngland90

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Turkey says a Russian warplane violated its airspace near the Syrian border, prompting the Turkish Air Force to scramble two F-16 fighter jets to intercept it. The Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest the violation and urged Russia to avoid repeating such a violation, or it would be held “responsible for any undesired incident that may occur”. (Reuters)
- Unconfirmed reports claim that Russia is mobilizing 150,000 troops to attack the Islamic State (Express)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- At least 57 people are killed following car-bombings across Iraq, including a rare bombing in the southern Basra province leaving 10 people dead. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are suspected of being behind the attacks. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Fighting rages between Houthi militants and Hadi loyalists backed-by Saudi-led coalition forces along Yemen’s Red Sea coast for control over the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb strait. Houthi officials said their forces had destroyed six opposing tanks and killed multiple pro-Hadi fighters. Also, the UAE announced another of its soldiers had died during fighting in Ma’rib. (Business Insider)

Business and economy

Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel files for bankruptcy. The company said its 200+ retail stores will continue to operate without any interruptions. (New York Times) (Forbes)
The World Bank estimates that 9.6 percent of the world’s population is living in extreme poverty this year, down from 12.8% in 2012. The bank also updated its global poverty line from $1.25 per day to $1.90 per day to reflect inflation and changes in purchasing power around the world; it was last adjusted in 2008. (Time) (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

October 2015 nor’easter
- Additional search and rescue efforts take place in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina. (AccuWeather) (USA Today)
- In South Carolina, nine people are now reported dead in weather-related incidents and millions remain homebound. Rain is forecast to continue with parts of the state dealing with flooding for some time. (CNN) (AP via ACBS News)
Hurricane Joaquin
- The El Faro, missing since Thursday, is announced to have sunk on Thursday with 33 people on board during Hurricane Joaquin after a debris field is found. (NBC News)
2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Mujigae
  - At least nine people are dead as Typhoon Mujigae hits southern China in the midst of the country’s weeklong National Day holiday. Mujigae also generated several strong tornadoes and left dozens of fishermen missing. Nearly 200,000 people had been evacuated before the storm made landfall. Neighboring Guangxi Zhuang region orders 12,700 fishing boats and 35,400 offshore workers to return to port. (AP) (International Business Times)
  - Tropical Storm Kabayan (local name for then-Tropical Storm Mujigae) left at least two dead in the Philippines with two injured and 63 persons missing. The system intensified as it left the Philippine Area of Responsibility heading toward China. (Manila Sun Star) (Philippine Star)

International relations

The government of Nauru announces that the Nauru Detention Centre will become an “open facility” where people seeking asylum in Australia will be able to move freely around the island. (ABC News Australia)
North Korea repatriates a South Korean student held in detention since April. (Yonhap News)

Law and crime

Former Chief Executive of Hong Kong Donald Tsang is charged with corruption by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. (Hong Kong Free Press)
The Trans-Pacific Partnership between the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries is finalized in the American city of Atlanta, Georgia. According to wikileaks, The main point of the deal will be that trans-national corporations will not be subjected to laws of individual countries. Instead an international system will be formed with the right to overrule national laws and legal decisions. (The Australian)

Politics and elections

Governor Jerry Brown signs legislation which would go into effect late 2016, legalizing euthanasia statewide in California.(CNN)

Science

William C. Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Tu Youyou win the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on parasitic diseases. (AP) (Washington Post)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 16, 2015

Top News Stories –

Santa Claus is elected to North Pole City Council in Alaska –
Mr Claus, who is 68 years old, has a white beard and is often seen in his hometown wearing red. Admittedly this North Pole is actually in Alaska, not the one every associates with Christmas. And Mr Claus actually changed his name from Thomas Patrick O’Connor about 10 years ago. “I’m fairly well known. I think people are pleased with it. We’ll see. Time will tell,” he said. “I have three years to make a positive impression so hopefully I will get off on the right foot later this month.” North Pole, Alaska, is home to about 2,200 people. Their new city councillor will take his seat later this month. Mr Claus, who was living in Nevada when he changed his name, says he tries to help at-risk children and improve the lives of young people. [BBC Newsbeat]

China home to more billionaires than the US –
China has eclipsed the United States as home to the world’s highest number of billionaires, according to a new report. Despite China’s economy cooling in recent months, the number of billionaires within its borders rose this year by 242, bringing the total to 596. The US, in contrast, is currently home to 537 billionaires, according to The Hurun Report, which monitors the wealthy in China. The list reflects a power shift in China’s economy, with the surge in the number of super rich fuelled by the growth of the nation’s IT and manufacturing industries. [Daily Telegraph]

Yahoo Mail does away with passwords –
One of the biggest pains of the digital age is having to memorise multiple lengthy and appropriately unguessable passwords. Now, Yahoo has done away with the password altogether in its new Yahoo Mail app, instead asking users to sign in via push notification. The new app uses new sign-in method Yahoo Account Key, which sends a notification to the smartphone you’ve chosen to link to the account asking ‘Are you trying to sign in?’ and the option to select yes or no. Yahoo claims the feature is more secure than a traditional password due to the second step of phone verification, but without the need to input a code. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Tesla’s Autopilot System Is Creepy And Wonderful

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ItsPerfectDay	#PreOrderPURPOSE	#FridayFeeling
2	#PreOrderPURPOSE	#ItsPerfectDay	#WorldFoodDay
3	#HeyEverybodyMusicVideo	#HeyEverybodyMusicVideo	#PreOrderPURPOSE
4	Hayırlı Cumalar	Malia Obama	#HeyEverybodyMusicVideo
5	Oscar Wilde	#RememberWhenPeopleActually	#MercuryPrize
6	Falcons	Ann Coulter	#ItsPerfectDay
7	Irene Lozano	#NationalBossDay	Cook
8	BuyPurposeOnITunes	#WorldFoodDay	#bbcqt
9	#BuenViernes	Joseph’s Tomb	Falcons
10	#ادخل_وكتب_دعو�…	#CrapperBooks	Joe Cole

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian political violence
- Palestinian rioters set fire to the building containing Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus causing heavy damage to the structure before the fire is put out. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the attack. (Times of Israel) (Jerusalem Post)
- An Israeli soldier is stabbed shortly after the fire by a Palestinian posing as a journalist with a camera and a “PRESS” vest; the attacker is shot dead. (Reuters)
Battle of Aleppo (2012–present), Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
- Syrian Army forces supported by Russian planes attack insurgents south of the city of Aleppo. (Reuters)
Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Turkey says it has shot down a drone near the Syrian border after it failed to leave Turkish airspace. (Today’s Zaman)

Arts and culture

A United States appeals court rules the Google Books Library Project, the scanning of millions of books with snippets searchable online, is legal under copyright law, affirming a 2013 district court decision. (USA Today) (The Register)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Koppu strengthens to a typhoon ahead of threatening lives and properties in the Philippines island of Luzon over the weekend. (AccuWeather)
2015 California drought
- Many residents of Los Angeles and Kern Counties in southern drought-stricken California are trapped by flash floods after receiving four to six inches of rain in a short period of time. (CNN)
- Mudslides, with head-high mounds of mud, from yesterday’s flash floods cover major highways in the mountains and desert north of Los Angeles. Interstate 5, one of the state’s major north-south arteries, is closed. The National Weather Service issues aflash flood watch today. (AP via KPHO TV) (Los Angeles Times)
Six construction workers, injured when scaffolding at an unfinished building collapsed in Houston, Texas (US), are rushed to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. Firefighters continue to sift through the debris for other potential victims. (Houston Chronicle)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- The European Union and Turkey reach an agreement for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for a £3bn aid package, easier visa conditions and re-energised talks to join the bloc. (ITV)
- Hungary announces it will close its southern border with Croatia at midnight. (Reuters)
Russia and other ex-Soviet states meeting in Kazakhstan agree to set up a joint task force to tackle instability on their borders, most notably from Afghanistan. (Reuters)
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is in Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama at The White House. (New York Times)
China hosts the ministers of defense from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the meeting a Chinese defense official suggests joint maritime drills between the host and ASEAN. At the same time, it is widely expected that U.S. Navyvessels may soon sail within 12 nautical miles of islands China is constructing upon reefs and atolls in the South China Sea. (New York Times) (BBC)
The United States confirms Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests. (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

Rafe Esquith, a notable teacher in the Los Angeles, California, public school system files a $1 billion class action lawsuit against the LA Unified School District. Esquith, recently removed from teaching and subsequently fired, alleges on behalf of almost 2,000 individuals, certain age-discrimination tactics by the school system against older teachers. (CNN)
A U.S. federal judge declines plaintiffs request for an emergency order requiring Texas issue birth certificates to U.S.-born children of immigrant families who entered the country illegally. The judge said Matrícula Consular cards issued by Mexican consulates to their citizens in the U.S. aren’t secure. The U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the right of citizenship to children born in the United States. (Miami Herald) (Washington Times)

Politics and elections

Hawaii Governor David Ige declares a state of emergency to address homelessness as the state has seen an alarming increase in unsheltered individuals and families over the past two years, particularly on O’ahu. Hawaii has the highest per capita rate ofhomelessness among the 50 states at about 465 people per 100,000 citizens. This act “frees up” money for this problem. (UPI) (Reuters) (Hawaii)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 19, 2015

Top News Stories –

Nasa predicts near-miss with asteroid on Halloween –
An asteroid is due to pass by Earth on Halloween and miss us by a whisker, according to Nasa. Well, if whiskers were 499,000km long, at any rate. The asteroid was spotted by Nasa a fortnight ago and is set to fly past the Earth on Halloween at over 78,000mph. It will cross by Earth at the closest it’s been since 2006. The space agency explained why they spotted it at such short notice, despite constantly monitoring the size. They said: “The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit.” We won’t be able to see the asteroid with the naked eye, but anyone with access to a telescope will be able to see it as it passes by. “This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027,” said Nasa. [Daily Telegraph]

Q Awards 2015: Foals beat Ed Sheeran and Blur to win Best Act In the World Today –
The Oxford band Foals confirmed their elevation to music’s biggest stages after being voted Best Act In the World Today at the Q magazine awards. Foals, who combine indie rock with electronic beats and African-inspired rhythms, beat Blur, Noel Gallagher and Ed Sheeran to the award, previously won by the likes of Radiohead and Coldplay. Ed Sheeran beat Kanye West, Taylor Swift and Sam Smith to the Solo Artist award, capping a year in which the strummer sold out three nights at Wembley Stadium, performing with just his guitar and a loops pedal. However Sheeran lost out to the Brighton drums and bass rock duo Royal Blood for the Best Live Act prize. [The Independent] See List of the Day
The Foals

Hundreds Of Apps Banned From App Store For Accessing Users’ Personal Information –
Hundreds of iOS applications have been pulled out of the App Store, following a report from analytics service SourceDNA, which uncovered a group of applications that were extracting users’ personally identifiable information, including email addresses associated with their Apple IDs, devices and peripheral serial numbers, as well as a list of apps installed on their phone. The applications in question had been using an SDK from a Chinese advertising company called Youmi which was accessing this information by way of private APIs, the report found. Nearly all of the developers were located in China so, for now, this appears to be an isolated incident. However, the larger concern here has to do with how long this activity had been taking place – and what that means in terms of Apple’s App Store review process, given that it hadn’t caught this suspect activity until being alerted to it by a third party. [Tech Crunch]

Video of the Day –

DRIVING from Nate Theis on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The Q Awards 2015 Winners

Q Best New Act

James Bay

Best Track

The Libertines – Gunga Din (Winner)

Q Best Album

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday

Q Best Video

Florence + The Machine – Ship To Wreck

Q Hero

Mark Ronson

Q Best Live Act

Royal Blood

Q Classic Album

Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. One

Q Best Solo Artist

Ed Sheeran

Q Innovation in Sound

Gary Numan

Q Best Act In The World

Foals

Gibson Les Paul Award

Tony Iommi

Q Outstanding Contribution to Music

New Order

Q Classic Single

Queen ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

Q Icon

Duran Duran

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DiaContraelCancerdeMama	#mondaymotivation	#FourWordsToLiveBy
2	#FelizLunes	#FourWordsToLiveBy	#mondaymotivation
3	Colts	Anthony Mackie	Foreign Office
4	#ALDUBRoadToForever	#MotivationMonday	#TheOuijaBoardSaid
5	#MeGustaMuchoQue	#MakeLifeBetterInAWord	Jamie Oliver
6	#DemiNoBrasil	#MyResumeDoesntMention	#lufc
7	Boca	#BoycottStarWarsVII	Seahawks
8	LuanetesSupportBeliebers	Weight Watchers	Leeds United
9	#FourWordsToLiveBy	Jay Carney	Colts
10	#MasterChefMX	Barry Zito	Star Wars

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- 19-year-old soldier Omri Levy was killed and nearly a dozen injured in a shooting and stabbing attack in the central bus station in the southern city of Beersheba carried out by an Israeli Bedouin Arab, 21-year old Mohind al-Okbi, who was killed after a gun battle. (Washington Post) (NBC News)
- Israeli hospital officials announce an Eritrean migrant, Haptom Zerhom, mistakenly shot by an Israeli security guard and then attacked by bystanders who thought he was involved in the Beersheva bus station attack, has died of his wounds. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahsho said this latest incident seemed to capture the current climate of ratcheted-up tensions. Police are looking to identify and locate members of the crowd who beat and fatally wounded the man; the security officer whose shot incapacitated the victim will not be investigated. (AP) (Yediot Ahronot – Ynet)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present): Kunduz hospital airstrike
- Afghanistan’s acting defense minister has stated that the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz bombed on 3 October by U.S. forces was being used as a safe haven by insurgents. MSF has repeatedly denied the allegation, stating “Every staff member in Kunduz working for MSF has repeatedly reported to us that there were no armed people in the hospital at the time of the bombing”. (AP)

Business and economics

China’s economy expanded 6.9% in third quarter over last year’s growth, just slightly better than forecast. (New York Times)
Shareholders from both companies overwhelmingly approve Aetna’s acquisition of Humana for $37 billion. (Louisville Courier-Journal) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Rising floodwaters are causing problems in the northern Philippines as Typhoon Koppu (Lando in the Philippines) is set to linger over the island of Luzon until Wednesday. Eleven people have died so far. (BBC) (AP via Fox News)
Seven hikers are killed by a raging forest fire while climbing Indonesia‘s Mount Lawu. (The Telegraph)

International relations

The United States Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force held a triennial fleet review off Tokyo Bay. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first sitting Japanese leader to board a U.S. aircraft carrier when he visited the USS Ronald Reagan.(USA Today) (Japan Times)
Pope Francis encourages bishops from around the world to sign an appeal to world leaders, meeting in Paris next month, for crucial climate change talks. In a major teaching document in June, the encyclical Laudato Si’ (Latin: Praised be), Francis denounced what he called the “structurally perverse” fossil fuel-based world economy that exploits the poor and destroys the habitability of the Earth for humans. (AP via Washington Post)
European migrant crisis
- Croatia reopens its border with Serbia allowing thousands of refugees to cross. (Irish Times)
Elements from the maritime forces of India, Japan, and the United States engage in joint military exercises in the Bay of Bengal. (Military Times)
South Ossetian President Leonid Tibilov announces South Ossetia intends on holding a referendum on joining the Russian Federation. Tibilov said reuniting with Russia “is a century-long dream of the South Ossetian people”. (Radio Free Europe)

Law and crime

Spencer Stone, primarily responsible for thwarting an August terrorist attack on a train en route to Paris from Amsterdam and later stabbed in downtown Sacramento has undergone open heart surgery. The wounds from the most recent altercation were more serious than previously reported. (Air Force Times)
South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is released from prison to serve the rest of his sentence for culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp under house arrest. (The Guardian)
Following 21 days of deliberation the deadlocked jury in Manhattan declared a mistrial in the case against three former senior attorneys from the “once large and prominent law firm” Dewey & LeBoeuf. The three had been charged with “plotting to manipulate financial records in an attempt to defraud bank lenders and insurance companies during the financial crisis.” (New York Times)

Politics and elections

Canadian federal election, 2015
- Voters in Canada go to the polls, to elect the 42nd Canadian Parliament. (CBC) (AP) In the United States, C-SPAN 2 aired complete CBC coverage of the event. [1]
- The Liberal Party of Canada performs very strongly in Atlantic Canada achieving over 60% of the vote and leading in all of the 33 seats. (The Guardian)
- Projections show that the Liberal Party of Canada led by Justin Trudeau is poised to form a majority government. (The Star)
- The Canadian Liberal party has won the federal election with 184 seats. (CBC)
The Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Benefits, Allison Hickey, at the beleaguered United States Department of Veterans Affairs resigned. She held the post since June 2011. (Military Times)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx announced that all unmanned aircraft, i.e. drones, will be required to be registered with the government just as manned aircraft are. DOT is forming a task force of government leaders and diverse stakeholderswho will determine the specifics of which drones will be covered and how the registration process will work. (Forbes) (Reuters) (NBC News) (DOT)
War in Donbass
- Portraits of former dictator Joseph Stalin go up in the city of Donetsk as the Donetsk People’s Republic adopts more Soviet era policies. (The Guardian)
Eric Chu, KMT party chairman, has replaced Hung Hsiu-chu as Taiwan’s ruling party candidate just months ahead of elections. (The Diplomat)

Science and technology

Apple pulls hundreds of iOS mobile applications from its App Store which, the company discovered, includes software that was secretly sending users’ personal information to an advertising firm in China. (NBC News) (TechCrunch)

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October 31, 2015

October 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

China: Guangzhou warns zombies to stay off metro –
Halloween revellers are being urged to avoid the underground system in one southern Chinese city, in case they cause a panic. Transport police in Guangzhou say people in ghoulish fancy dress have been making other passengers nervous in recent days, and officers want travellers to report anyone they spot wearing spooky costumes. “Passengers’ strange behaviour may make some feel uneasy, cause onlookers to panic and could easily lead to security risks,” the force says in a statement posted on its Sina Weibo microblog account. “Therefore the subway does not encourage such acts.” [BBC]

Justin Bieber sorry for storming off stage after one song in Norway –
Justin Bieber’s been living up to the name of his new song Sorry by apologising to his fans for storming off stage in Norway. He said he was “done” and “I’m not doing the show” after performing one track during a TV recording in Oslo. In fan-filmed videos, Justin Bieber can be seen getting annoyed with people at the front of the stage while trying to wipe the floor. The singer later posted an apology on his Instagram account. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Nike: Snow Day

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#YaVieneNoviembreY	#HappyHalloween	#BuyFocusOniTunes
2	#HappyHalloween	#FridayFeeling	#FridayFeeling
3	貴サークル	Grantland	#scotlab15
4	#BuyFocusOniTunes	#YouMightBeSingleIn5Words	#HappyHalloween
5	#RespectForJustin	#FashionTipsIn4Words	Shaker Aamer
6	Olivia	#HowDidWeEndUpHere	Bob Ross
7	冬コミ	#BuyFocusOniTunes	Benedict Cumberbatch
8	#الهلال_الاتحاد	Piss On Your Grave	Olivia
9	Hayırlı Cumalar	Bob Ross	#TOPdebate
10	Grantland	Shaker Aamer	#HowDidWeEndUpHere

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- At least 65 people are killed and 250 injured in Syrian government airstrikes targeting a marketplace in the city of Douma, Syria. (WSJ) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera via Yahoo!)
- American-led intervention in Syria
  - U.S. President Barack Obama is set to send Special Operations forces to regions in northern Syria under Kurdish control to help local forces fight the Islamic State. (New York Times) (Reuters)
Andrew Parker, head of British security agency MI5, states that ISIS terrorists are planning attacks in Great Britain and current terror threat levels are the highest he’s witnessed in his career. (The Telegraph)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- Two assailants are shot dead by Israeli police after knife-wielding Palestinians attacked Israelis in Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank. Another four people, including a Palestinian assailant, are injured in incidents at an Israeli checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus and at a tram station in East Jerusalem. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- The Iranian-funded Shi’ite Al-Mukhtar Army claims responsibility for Thursday’s deadly rocket attacks near the Baghdad International Airport that killed 23 members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. (Reuters)

Arts and Culture

Happy Days actor Al Molinaro dies at 96. (Washington Post)

Business and economics

Quebec-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International cut all ties with Philidor Rx Services. This comes in the wake of recent revelations that Valeant was looking to acquire Philidor, a relationship that raised questions from various quarters. Valeant is the subject of U.S. federal investigations. (New York Times)
- America’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers, CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts, drop Philidor from their networks after an audit showed the company’s “noncompliance” with its provider agreement. Bloomberg reports Philidor had written instructions to, in some cases, change codes on prescriptions so it would appear physicians required or patients desired Valeant’s brand-name drugs — not less expensive generic versions. (Reuters via Business Insider) (Bloomberg)
Volkswagen emissions scandal
- U.K. transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin says Volkswagen has to start financially addressing this problem by compensating motorists with, the estimated total is £600m (US$925 million). (Sky News) (Bitterwallet)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Bucharest nightclub explosion
- At least 27 people are killed and more than 180 hospitalized with injuries after a fire in a nightclub in the Romanian capital Bucharest. Officials say a heavy metal band’s pyrotechnical show sparked a fire inside the Colectiv nightclub. (Sputnik News),(BBC) (Fox News)
2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- Cyclone Chapala intensifies in the Arabian Sea as it heads towards Yemen and Oman which rarely experience tropical cyclones. The cyclone is expected to dump two years worth of rain on the normally arid Arabian Peninsula in two days. (Sydney Morning Herald via WA Today)
One construction worker dies and at least one more is under the rubble from the collapse of a building being demolished to make way for a Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide luxury boutique hotel in New York City. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters)
European migrant crisis
- Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras lashes out at European “ineptness” in handling the continent’s massive immigration crisis. The Associated Press reports 31 more people — mostly children — drowned in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea near the islands of Kalymnos and Rhodes. Turkey’s state-run agency says four children drowned and two others are missing after two new accidents with boats headed to Greece’s Lesbos and Samos islands. The death toll in the Aegean Sea over the past three days is at least 50. The Greek coast guard says they rescued 600 people in the past 24 hours, while thousands more made it safely from Turkey to Greece’s southeastern islands. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)
Storms hit the American state of Texas causing at least two deaths with one person reported missing. Rivers overflowed as more than a foot of rain fell in some areas while tornadoes ripped through buildings outside San Antonio. (NBC News) (Reuters)
A building collapse in Henan province in central China leaves 17 workers dead and 23 injured. (Xinhua via iCrossChina
A Virginia (U.S.) school bus overturns after being struck by a van, sending 28 students to local hospitals with five seriously injured. (Inside Edition)

International relations

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, is released. Aamer faces no charges in Britain; Scotland Yard detectives questioned him for three days during his detention. (BBC) (AP via Seattle Times)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The European Union sides with the United States over Tuesday’s U.S.-Chinese patrolling incident in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
Syria peace talks in Vienna, Syrian Civil War
- Representatives from about 20 countries meet in Vienna, Austria, seeking a political solution to Syria’s four-year civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people, including dozens more today. For the first time Iran is at the table, where diplomats seek peace through a ceasefire plan followed by a transitional government. (USA Today) (Payvand.com)

Law and crime

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rules it has jurisdiction to hear the Philippines‘ case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea. (The Diplomat) (BBC News)
U.S. Army judge Col. James Pohl denies Guantanamo detainee Walid bin Attash’s request to drop his legal counsel clearing the way for the trial’s continuation. (Military Times)
Polish Judge Dariusz Mazur rules the law forbids film director Roman Polanski’s extradition to the U.S. where he pleaded guilty nearly four decades ago to having sex with a minor. The prosecutors can appeal the ruling. (Sky News) (BBC)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 11, 2015

Top News Stories –

Rare pink diamond sells for £19 million –
A large diamond of a rare pink hue fetched 28.725 million Swiss francs (£19 million) setting a new record on Tuesday, the star lot of Christie’s semi-annual jewellery sale in Geneva. A Chinese client based in Hong Kong bought the cushion-shaped pink diamond weighing 16.08 carats and graded vivid fancy pink, which is set in a platinum and gold ring surrounded by a double row of pave-set white diamonds. Its pre-sale estimate was $23 million to $28 million. The seller was not identified and the buyer, who has named the pink diamond “The Sweet Josephine,” wished to remain anonymous, Christie’s said. The diamond’s origin was not disclosed. In almost 250 years of auction history, only three pure vivid pink diamonds of over 10 carats have appeared for sale, according to Christie’s. [Daily Telegraph]

Call of Duty: Black Ops III ‘is the biggest entertainment launch of 2015’ –
Activision is claiming the biggest entertainment launch of the year with Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Not just in gaming. According to the game maker, it’s bigger than any film, music or book launch in 2015. Since its release on 6 November the new Call of Duty instalment has been beating records left, right and centre. During its opening weekend the game brought in over $550m (£362m) in worldwide sales. This beats 2015’s blockbuster hits such as Jurassic World and Furious 7 and chart topper Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk. [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

‘Finding Dory’ Trailer

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#PURPOSETOUR	#PURPOSETOUR	#PURPOSETOUR
2	#VeteransDay	#VeteransDay	John Major
3	#GOPDebate	#PrayForMizzou	#ArmisticeDay
4	#2DaysUntilMITAM	#BlackOnCampus	#FOM15
5	#WhatAFeeling	#CanWeBringBack	Happy Diwali
6	#MarVermelho	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	#GOPDebate
7	#لو_كنت_متزوج_ه…	#WhatAFeeling	Gordon Brown
8	#ArmisticeDay	Bob Dole	Sepp Blatter
9	FELICES 21 GRAVANO	#ScienceABook	#IKWYDLS
10	Happy Diwali	iPad Pro	Stuart Lancaster

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- The Israeli Air Force reportedly conducts an airstrike near Damascus International Airport, in Syria‘s capital, the target apparently a weapons shipment reportedly intended for Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, according to Syrian opposition groups. (Times of Israel) (The Jerusalem Post)
Turkey–PKK conflict, 2015 PKK rebellion
- Turkish security forces backed up by tanks and combat helicopters launch a large-scale operation against PKK militants in the mainly Kurdish town of Silvan, which has been under a punishing curfew for nine days. At least five people are killed in the fighting, including a Turkish soldier. (AFP via Yahoo)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Carrying coffins holding the beheaded bodies of seven ethnic Hazara, thousands of demonstrators from Afghanistan’s different ethnic groups – Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara – march on the Presidential Palace in Kabul, urging the government to take action against the rising violence against Afghan civilians. The murders, which the United Nations denounced as a potential war crime, have fueled a growing sense of insecurity since the Taliban briefly seized control of Kunduz in late September. (RAWA News) (Reuters)

Business and economics

Metrojet Flight 9268
- Tourism bookings in Egypt’s main Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh plunge in the wake of the plane crash with some 80% of reservations cancelled and at least 40% of the tourists leaving the resort since the crash. (The Globe And Mail)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Slovenian border barrier
  - Slovenia’s army begins erecting a razor wire fence along parts of its southern border with Croatia in order to stop a tide of illegal migrants entering the country. Around 180,000 people, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan have streamed into Slovenia since mid-October after trekking northwards along a Balkan corridor from Greece, most of them bound ultimately for Germany. (Reuters)
- Sweden is imposing temporary border controls to stem a record inflow of refugees. The Nordic nation pleads with the rest of Europe for help. (Bloomberg) (Newsweek)

Law and crime

Anti-corruption campaign in China
- Beijing Deputy Communist Party Secretary Lü Xiwen and Shanghai vice mayor Ai Baojun are placed under investigation by the top anti-graft body of the Communist Party of China, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. (New York Times)
The Constitutional Court of Spain agrees to hear an appeal by the national government against a bid for independence by Catalonia suspending legal bids for secession. (Reuters)
Three aircraft, a Southwest Airlines 737, a Virgin America A319, and a private plane, were all struck by a laser coming from the same direction as they were about to land at Dallas’s Love Field, according to the U.S. FAA. (Fox News)

Politics and elections

Myanmar general election, 2015
- With 45 percent of the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives) results announced from Sunday’s election, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) moves closer to an absolute majority in the country’s parliament, winning over 90 percent (135 of 149 seats) in the country’s lower house. The NLD also has taken over 85 percent in the upper house and regional assemblies. The NLD needs to win more than two-thirds of seats that were contested in parliament to form Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since the early 1960s. (Reuters)
- Twenty-five percent (25%) of the seats in the legislature are not elected; they are reserved for military appointees, taken from Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) personnel, and officially known as “Army Representatives.” (Channel 3000)
Pro-independence Catalan leaders vowed to continue their efforts to secede from Spain, defying a ruling by the Madrid-based constitutional court that suspended a law defining a path for independence. (International Business Times) (Time)

Science and technology

Astronomers announce the discovery of V774104, the most distant object yet found in the solar system, a dwarf planet orbiting at three times the distance of Pluto. (NPR)

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November 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

‘Li-fi 100 times faster than wi-fi’ –
A new method of delivering data, which uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves, has been tested in a working office. Li-fi can deliver internet access 100 times faster than traditional wi-fi, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second). It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn. Velmenni used a li-fi-enabled light bulb to transmit data at speeds of 1Gbps. Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of up to 224Gbps. It was tested in an office, to allow workers to access the internet and in an industrial space, where it provided a smart lighting solution. [BBC]

US space rocket debris found in sea off Scilly –
A large chunk of an American space rocket has been found in the sea off the Isles of Scilly. The section of the spacecraft, measuring about 10m (32ft) by 4m (13ft), was spotted on the surface between Bryher and Tresco. Coastguards believe it is from the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 which exploded after take-off in Florida in June. However many astronomers believe it is from a different mission due to the size and markings. Local boatmen towed the section to Tresco where it has now been removed from the beach. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Wild Scotland from John Duncan on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#PremiosTelehit	#WhyINeedYouIn5Words	#LancashireDay
2	Kant	#BlackFriday	#tshirtday
3	#زد_رصيدك14	#In2016IWannaSee	#DavisCupFinal
4	#الهلال_الشباب	Sean Taylor	#VampsAlbumOutToday
5	Mステ	#PlannedParenthood	#WhyINeedYouIn5Words
6	#ALDUBDontGiveUpOnUs	#AppleCup	#BlackFriday
7	River	Jared Brownridge	Gary Speed
8	Brett Favre	Tyshawn Lee	#FridayFeeling
9	VOT 3 A LO MANIJA	#IOWAvsNEB	David Icke
10	#hommagenational	Kendrick	#AUSvNZ

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

One person is killed and several injured in clashes between police and Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldiers. (ABC News Australia)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- France holds a memorial service for the 130 victims of the attacks two weeks ago. (BBC)
2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- Turkey‘s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warns Russia not to “play with fire” and says Russia is supporting the “state terrorism” of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria that has “killed 380,000 people”. Relations between the former Cold War antagonists have been severely damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 near the Syria–Turkey border on November 24, 2015. (Sky News)
2015 Bamako hotel attack
- Malian forces arrest two men in their early 30s linked to a cell phone found at the scene of last week’s deadly hotel attack. No details are provided on what their exact role was. (CNN)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- Two Palestinian drivers drive their vehicles into groups of Israeli soldiers in two separate attacks in the occupied West bank. Both drivers are shot dead. In this current wave of violence that began in October, 19 Israelis, one U.S. citizen, and 93 Palestinians have died. (Reuters)
- The Israeli cabinet authorizes the Israeli Army to close the village of Beir Ummar near Hebron to search for suspects. (Haaretz)
Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea
- Pirates attack a Polish-owned cargo ship off the coast of Nigeria, kidnapping its captain and four crew. Polish Foreign Minister, Witold Waszczykowski, said the as yet unidentified kidnappers have made no demands so far and Poland was currently liaising with Nigerian authorities. (Reuters)
Islamist insurgency in West Africa
- A suicide-bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession in Nigeria‘s northern Kano state leaves at least 21 people dead. (BBC)

Arts and culture

Archaeologists discover four prehistoric Ichma culture tombs in the centre of the Peruvian capital Lima. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

Business and economics

China’s Shanghai index closed down 5.5%, a drop of almost 200 points in what was its largest single-day decline in three months. (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 Australian bushfire season
- At least 87 homes have been lost in the fires that started in Pinery, South Australia which also claimed two lives and hospitalised 90 with five people in a critical condition. (ABC News Australia)
Floodwaters in the North Texas area in the North Texas region of the United States claim at least three lives on Thursday and today with another person missing. (Dallas Morning News)

International relations

Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis, speaking in the Kenyan shantytown Kangemi, a sprawling slum filled with tin-roofed homes, lashes out at the elite in a neighborhood that feels largely disenfranchised. He describes injustices against the poor, such as unfair distribution of land, and lack of access to infrastructures and basic services, as “new forms of colonialism.” (CNN)
- Francis, at a Nairobi sports center, says education and jobs will prevent young people from being radicalized and heading off to join militant groups. At the Kasarani Stadium, the Pope urges attendees to resist the temptation of corruption. “It’s in all the institutions, including in the Vatican …” (USA Today)
Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, is appointed as the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. She will become the first woman to hold the position from April 2016. (NYSE Post)

Law and crime

Former Saenuri Party member of the South Korean National Assembly Cho Hyun-ryong is jailed for five years for accepting bribes. (Yonhap)
The appellate prosecutors office in the Polish city of Krakow decides not to appeal a decision against extraditing filmmaker Roman Polanski to the United States to face prosecution for historic child sex offences. (Reuters)
2015 Colorado Springs shootings
- An active shooter in a Planned Parenthood facility in the American city of Colorado Springs shoots at least four members of the Colorado Springs Police Department with one officer later dying. Two civilians were also killed, and six were injured. The shooter later surrendered. (Denver Post) (Reuters) (NBC News) (CNN)

Politics

Detroit, a city in which neighborhoods are disappearing, banks aren’t lending, and property values are among the lowest in the nation, is looking to reverse these trends. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is moving aggressively to demolish structures that are beyond repair and auction (bids start at $1,000) ones that are salvageable. Some community banks are helping new buyers. (Washington Post)
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a major overhaul of China’s military to make the world’s largest army more combat ready and better equipped to project force beyond the country’s borders. Under the reorganization, all branches of the armed forces would come under a joint military command, Xi told a meeting of military officials in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Bloomberg in September reported details of the plan, which may also seek to consolidate the country’s seven military regions to as few as four. The Chinese president said the reform aimed to “build an elite combat force” and called on the officials to make “breakthroughs” on establishing the joint command by 2020, Xinhua said. (Bloomberg)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

New Zealand: Auckland aims to become trilingual city –
New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, has announced plans to encourage the entire population to speak English, Maori and a third language. The initiative, launched by the council-controlled educational organisation COMET, aims to get all of Auckland’s 1.4 million residents speaking the national language of Te Reo Maori, Radio New Zealand reports. Currently, only 2.3% of Aucklanders speak the language, the lowest rate in the country, while over 1m of the city’s residents are monolingual – usually English, the radio says. Some 377,000 residents already have two languages as a result of the city’s diverse ethnic mix, where 40% of Aucklanders were born overseas, but their languages tend to be overlooked in favour of English. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Domestic Appliances from Lewis Firth Bolton on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#CyberMonday	#CyberMonday	Sam Pepper
2	#FelizLunes	#mondaymotivation	#CyberMonday
3	Kobe	#PopeBars	#mondaymotivation
4	水木先生	Tomorrow is December	#StAndrewsDay
5	#SoulTrainAwards	#RejectedReindeer	Kobe Bryant
6	Balón de Oro	#COP21	#AuthorDay
7	水木しげる先生	Sam Pepper	75% of Labour
8	#TheWalkingDead	#ISurvivedHighSchoolBy	Overweight Haters Ltd
9	#الهلال_التعاون	Clay Helton	#PAKvENG
10	Sam Pepper	Anne of Green Gables	#TWDMidSeasonFinale

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Paris attack aftermath
- French intelligence services are reportedly operating under the theory that Paris-attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has escaped to Syria despite country-wide martial law in 3 different countries. (CNN)
Iraqi Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL, American-led intervention in Iraq
- With the support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraqi Armed Forces have launched operations to retake Ramadi from ISIL. (Military Times)
Syrian Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that at least 50 United States military instructors have deployed to northern Syria from Turkey and Iraq to train Kurdish forces ahead of an assault on ISIL‘s de-facto capital Al-Raqqah. (Deutsche Welle)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- At least three Saudi border guards are killed following clashes with Yemeni forces in the kingdom’s southern Jizan Region near the border with Yemen. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Responding to reports, the American Tribune Publishing Co. states it is not in talks to sell the company. (Chicago Tribune) (Wall Street Journal)
Canadian BlackBerry Limited announces plans to shut down operations in Pakistan at year’s end because it cannot comply with the Pakistani government’s monitoring orders which would result in a massive invasion of user privacy. (CNET)
The International Monetary Fund modifies its benchmark currency basket to include the yuan of the People’s Republic of China. The basket also includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, and the Japanese yen. (Reuters)
The United States Federal Reserve Board approves a rule prohibiting the government from extending emergency loans to “too big to fail” companies, a practice deemed essential during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. (UPI)

Health and medicine

The capitals of the world’s two most populous nations, China and India, are blanketed in hazardous, choking smog. Beijing, on the second-highest pollution alert, is closing highways, halting or suspending construction while warning residents to stay indoors. The U.S. New Delhi embassy’s monitoring station recorded an air quality index of 372, putting air pollution levels into “hazardous” territory. No action by the New Delhi government. (Hindustan Times)
A UNICEF report finds AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African teenagers and the second most common killer for adolescents across the globe. While the Asia Pacific region has seen a 31 percent drop in new HIV infections, and 28 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths, the estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the region has more than doubled since 2005. Tomorrow is World Aids Day. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)

International relations

Martyrs’ Day (United Arab Emirates) is being observed in United Arab Emirates as Commemoration Day this year on November 30, 2015, recognising the sacrifices and dedication of Emirati martyrs who have given their life in the UAE and abroad in the field of civil, military and humanitarian service. (GulfNews)
South Korea’s parliament approves a free trade pact with China after opposition lawmakers, concerned that deal that would hurt agriculture and fisheries, secured a $1.4 billion relief package for farmers. (AP via Fox News)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Around 150 world leaders attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, aiming for a global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (CNN)
Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis travels to a besieged Muslim neighborhood known as PK5 in the Central African Republic, a country wracked by sectarian violence. This visit is part of Francis’s message of peace and reconciliation. As a result of the violence over the last two years, most of the capital Bangui’s 100,000-plus Muslims have fled; now only 15,000 remain. (AP via Bastrop Daily Enterprise)
- Pope Francis tells a crowd in a mosque in Bangui that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.” (BBC)
Israel will open a diplomatic mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), the headquarters of which are located near the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Israel will be the first Irena member to open such a mission; other member nations work Irena relations from their missions to the UAE, which Israel does not have. (New York Times)
Arctic Joint Strategic Command (Russia)
- A Russian Airborne Troops spokesman says the VDV is planning to expand their military exercises into the North Pole area of the Arctic in 2016. (UPI)

Law and crime

The University of Chicago cancels classes for the day, and asks students, faculty, and non-essential staff to stay away from its main campus after being informed by the FBI of a threat of gun violence. (Reuters via The Jerusalem Post) (USA Today)
- One suspect, a student from the University of Illinois at Chicago is arrested. The University of Chicago announces classes remain canceled for the day. (Chicago Tribune)
Russian undesirable organizations law
- Russia bans two George Soros-run foundations, including the Open Society Foundations, for posing a threat to “Russian national security”. The Open Society Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation, both financed by business magnate Soros, are the latest additions to a list of “undesirable organizations”, a list the Russian government says is necessary to stop foreign governments from interfering in Russia’s internal affairs. (The Guardian)
Jury selection begins for the trial of William Porter, a Baltimore, Maryland police officer charged with manslaughter and other charges surrounding the April 19 death of Freddie Gray. Porter is the first of six officers to be tried. (CNN)

Politics and elections

Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2015
- Venezuela announces it will suspend the sale of alcoholic beverages, fireworks and weapons before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, starting Friday at 6 p.m. until next Monday at 6 p.m. Civilian permits for the possession and use of firearms and kniveswill be also be suspended for the same period. (UPI)
Burkinabé general election, 2015
- Former prime minister Roch Marc Kaboré appears on course for a commanding victory in Burkina Faso’s election, one large enough to eliminate the need for a run-off. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, with results from about 72 percent of the country counted, Kaboré has 54 percent of the vote with his closest challenger, former finance minister Zéphirin Diabré, getting 29 percent. (The Globe and Mail)
Saudi Arabia elections, 2015
- For the first time in the country’s history, Saudi Arabian women are allowed to vote and to stand for office in the December 12, 2015, elections. Candidacy filings opened yesterday. In two days, more than 900 women have signed up to run for various local government positions in the Arab nation. (UPI)

Science and technology

Researchers at North Carolina State University discover a new diamond-like, solid phase of carbon, called Q-carbon, that can be attained at room temperature. The result is a uniquely crystalline material, harder than a real diamond and likely boasting a variety of new properties, most unknown or unstudied. (UPI)

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December 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

Miss Universe: Miss Colombia mistakenly crowned as winner –
The host of the Miss Universe has apologised after mistakenly naming the wrong woman as winner, leaving Miss Colombia empty-handed. After the error, Ariadna Gutierrez was instead declared runner-up and surrendered her crown to Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach. #MissUniverse2015 became Twitter’s biggest trend of the night as social media users expressed their disbelief. The host Steve Harvey responded, saying it was “his mistake” and he would take responsibility for not reading the winning card correctly. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach

Star Wars smashes box office records on opening weekend –
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” shattered box office records with an estimated $517 million (£350 million) in worldwide ticket sales on its opening weekend, a staggering debut that re-established the celebrated space saga as a global phenomenon. The first “Star Wars” film in a decade recorded the biggest domestic opening in Hollywood’s history, collecting $238 million over the weekend in the United States and Canada. Global sales for “Force Awakens” finished second only to the dinosaur film “Jurassic World,” which in its June opening garnered $525 million worldwide, including China, where the “Star Wars” film will not open for weeks. “Jurassic World” took $208.8 million at domestic cinemas in its first weekend. “Force Awakens” is the seventh installment in the epic science-fiction franchise created by George Lucas in 1977. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

THE 64TH ANNUAL MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT | Can’t ‘Miss’ Moment: The Reveal

List of the Day –

Star Wars films in order of box office performance –

IMDb rating:8.7

IMDb rating:8.8

IMDb rating:8.4

IMDb rating:6.5

IMDb rating:7.7

IMDb rating:6.7

IMDb rating:5.8

Note that figures are for US box office and allow for the effects of inflation.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DomingoComOClubeSDV	Air France	#WeAreAllHarry
2	#زد_رصيدك37	#PeopleWhoMadeMy2015	#SoundOfMusicLive
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9	Chabelo	#1989WorldTourLIVE	#2015In5Words
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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Air France Flight 463 en-route to Paris from Mauritius makes an emergency landing in Mombasa, Kenya, after a package, suspected to be a bomb is found in the toilet. Later, Air France CEO Frédéric Gagey says it was a false alarm; the package contained a mixture of cardboard, sheets of paper, and a timer. (AP via News24) (CNN) (Reuters)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–Vietnam relations
- Vietnam is reported to be preparing for a possible military conflict with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  - A missile-strike attributed to the Israeli Air Force in Jaramana in southern Syria kills high-ranking Lebanese Hezbollah commander and murderer, Samir Kuntar, and eight National Defence Force (NDF) personnel. Kuntar was the longest serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel until his release in 2008. On April 22, 1979 Kuntar and his team broke into an apartment building and kidnapped a father, 31-year-old Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach and killing them. (Reuters)
- Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  - Airstrikes, apparently from Russian jets, kill scores of people in the center of rebel-held Idlib in northwest Syria. The missiles hit a busy market place, several government buildings, and residential areas. At least 73 bodies, 30 unidentified, have been recovered. (Reuters)
A female driver runs over pedestrians at the Las Vegas Strip between Planet Hollywood and Paris Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring at least 26 more. (ABC)

Arts and culture

Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, is crowned Miss Universe 2015 in Las Vegas, moments after host Steve Harvey incorrectly announced 1st runner-up Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez, as the winner. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Thousands, including families, children, and miners from around the country, march from Knottingley to North Yorkshire to mark the end of deep coal mining in the United Kingdom. The last facility, Kellingley Colliery in Beal, North Yorkshire, closed for good, Friday, 18 December 2015. The march was organized by two miners’ wives to pay tribute to this industry. (The Independent) (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Shenzhen landslide
- Thirty-three buildings collapse after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, China, leaving at least 91 people missing. (CNN)
An avalanche in Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic archipelago, kills one and injures nine others as the snow smashes into 10 houses in Longyearbyen. The deluge from Sukkertoppen mountain follows Friday’s 60 mph storm that ripped off a school roof and temporarily closed the airport. Dozens of homes at the foot of the mountain were evacuated and all of the area’s residents have been located, according to Tone Hertzberg, a spokeswoman for Svalbard’s governor. Experts from Norges Geotekniske Instituttare examining nearby slopes. (AP via CBS News) (newsinenglish.no)
A ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi, with at least three killed, including two children, 39 rescued, and 77 missing. The New Marina, a fiberglass boat, was reported to be carrying 109 passengers with a crew of 10. The National Search and Rescue Agency says the boat sank 22.5 km (24 miles) off the coast of the Wajo Regency in South Sulawesi. Rescue teams expect to resume their search for the missing, Monday. (BenarNews) (Muscat Daily)
Two pilots are killed after a South Korean-made KAI T-50 Golden Eagle crashes and bursts into flames at an air show in Yogyakarta on Indonesia‘s Java island. (The Telegraph)

Politics and elections

Spanish general election, 2015
- Today’s parliamentary election is forecast to end Spain’s two-party system as the traditional powers, the center-right People’s Party (PP) and the center-left Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), are facing real challenges from the anti-austerity Podemos Partyand the liberal Ciudadanos party (C’s). Analysts expect a high turnout. (Reuters via Huffington Post) (Newsweek)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaign fires national data director Josh Uretsky, and suspends two staffers following Friday’s announcement the campaign had improperly accessed and downloaded voter data belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. NBC News reports at least four individuals affiliated with the campaign were involved in the breach, which occurred Wednesday. (NBC News) (Bloomberg)
Elections in Iran
- Iranian legislative election, 2016
  - Iran starts registering candidates for the 290-seat parliamentary elections scheduled for 26 February 2016. Potential candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council. The elections will, effectively, be a vote on President Hassan Rouhani’smoderate policies that received a boost from the July 14 landmark nuclear deal. (AP via The Washington Post)
- Iranian Assembly of Experts election, 2016
  - Elections for the 88-seat Experts Assembly, a clerical body empowered to choose or dismiss Iran’s supreme leader and supervise his activities, are scheduled for Thursday 25 February 2016. Those elected may decide who replaces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 76. (Deutsche Welle)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

1. Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) – $1,486m

2. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $818m

3. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) – $784m

4. Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) – $707m

5. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) – $495m

6. Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) – $446m

7. The Clone Wars (2008) – $41m